Rosy Dreams - Cast

Cast

The preponderance of dubbed roles was partly due to casting. Dušan Hanák wanted Rosy Dreams to feature little-seen and authentic actors. He turned to Czech actors to bring fresh faces to the Slovak silver screen, but out of those he cast, only Libuše Havelková and to some degree Václav Babka managed to speak the Slovak lines well enough not to require dubbing. Retaining the actors' voice proved almost impossible with the Romani characters. The otherwise adept Iva Bittová, a student at the music conservatory in Brno in Czech-speaking Moravia and daughter of a Moravian-Czech mother and a Romani father from the Galanta District in western Slovakia, had had little practical experience with Slovak and none with Romani, and the other Romani non-actors needed to be dubbed either for language issues, or because of their inexperience.

Among the few authentic voices that belonged to less experienced actors was the lead, Juraj Nvota, a student of theater directing at the University of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Sally Salingová had gained some performing experience as a singer with the then popular Braňo Hronec jazz band. Věra Bílá was born in the Czech Republic but her father, the musician Karol Giňa, and mother were born and grew up in eastern Slovakia (she herself moved there in 2005), which gave her experience with the language and her few Slovak and Romani lines were included. On the other hand, one of the film's most authentic-appearing characters, the granny Jakub feared dead, was actually played by the veteran actress Naďa Hejná from one of Slovakia's old, notable families who had a lifetime of amateur and professional experience on the stage in Martin.

Iva Bittová continued with her singing career, began to compose, and eventually saw her albums released in the United States. Another Romani non-actor, Věra Bílá, also embarked on an original singing career in the 1990s although she was singing in bands much earlier. Juraj Nvota followed Rosy Dreams with several more acting roles, started a varied career as a theater director, and began to direct films in the 1990s.