We are beyond delighted to announce that Eliska Tanzer’s powerful and moving memoir, The Girl From Nowhere, has been option by London-based film and TV company Same Name Productions for a TV series, and is in early development. The deal was struck by Marc Simonsson of SoloSon Media, on behalf of Joanna Swainson at Hardman & Swainson.

Mirror Books published The Girl From Nowhere in February 2020. The memoir follows Eliska from early life in a Romani ghetto to her new life in the UK after being trafficked over as a thirteen-year-old girl. It was a BBC Radio 4 ‘Pick of the Week’. Writer and journalist Clover Stroud called it ‘the ultimate book about survival and an against-all-odds fight to make it in life.’

Same Name’s, Siri Ellerton said: “This is an incredible story about the resilience of the human spirit. Eliska endured trials that most people can only imagine, and yet she stayed strong and kept positive throughout. Even in her darkest hours, she rose above the pain and fear, and continued onwards. We read the book and knew we wanted to take this to the screen as her story is a powerful way to help shed light on important social issues are happening daily in our own countries, in our own neighbours homes.”

Eliska said: said: “The passion behind this project has been one of the most humbling shows of support I’ve received since my book was released. I have been in a whirlwind of happiness and motivation ever since. Knowing my experiences, my journey to England and my growth will be given a visual life makes me confident that it will help others on their own paths to survival and healing.

To westerners, being Gypsy means being wild, romantic and free.

To Eliska Tanzer, it means being rented out to dance for older men. It means living without running water. It means not being allowed a job or an education. It means being stuffed into a bare room with all your aunts and cousins, fighting over the thin, stained blanket the way you fight over the last piece of half-mouldy bread.

It means joining the family prostitution ring when you’re still a child.

But Eliska was given a way out. Slung out of Hoe School and shipped to England in a washing machine box, she thought she had made it. But her dream soon turned into a nightmare.

You can read the full Bookbrunch article here.