French-Romanian singer and actress Rona Hartner (50 years old), who gained wide fame in the field of electro music in the Balkans, died yesterday, Thursday, in the city of Toulon, and won the Best Actress award at the Locarno Film Festival for the movie “Gadjo Delo.”
Rhona Hartner – born on March 9, 1973 in Bucharest – appeared in the movie “Gadjo Delo” in 1997, starring French actor Romain Dore and directed by Tony Gatliff. It is the story of a French man who goes to Romania in search of a gypsy singer. For this role, she won the acting award at the Swiss Locarno Festival.
Gatliff expressed his sadness at Hartner’s death, recalling that she was “wonderful and very generous, in acting as well as in life.” He recounted that “when she won a prize in Locarno, she took all the food there and put it in a bag. This upset the festival officials, but when she came out, she gave everything to the poor.
He added, “I searched a lot for an actress to take on the role in (Gadjo Delo). And I wanted a girl like her. I’ve never seen a girl who could dare to act like this, but it wasn’t vulgar. Rather, she was generous.”
While film critic Irina Margarita Nestor said, “I think she loved Romania very much, but Romania loved her less.” Despite her fame in France, she “did not get roles in Romania.”
Hartner was also a musician and singer, and collaborated with a number of prominent DJs in the field of Balkan electro music, such as German Chantelle and DJ Tagada, as well as with director David Lynch on a series of tracks. In 2015, she released the album “The Balkanic Gospel,” which combines gypsy, gospel, and jazz music.
