Η Δέσποινα Καλνή, γεννημένη στην Ίμβρο το 1920, από τους λίγους εναπομείναντες Ρωμιούς της Πόλης, ζει μόνη, καθηλωμένη σε αναπηρικό καροτσάκι, σ’ ένα φτωχικό διαμέρισμα με ενοίκιο στα Ταταύλα-Κουρτουλούς. Σπανίως πια βγαίνει από το σπίτι της, συνήθως για να ανάψει ένα κερί στη γειτονική εκκλησία του Αι-Δημήτρη.
In the film “Madame Despina”, Despina Kalni, who was born in Imvros island in 1920 and lives in Istanbul, narrates the story of her own life.
She spent her childhood in Imvros. She was an undisciplined tomboy and was expelled from school. She came in Istanbul at the age of eleven years old. At first she worked as a servant in a Jewish house and then as a dancer in the bars. Later thanks to her cleverness and her hard work she became a wealthy woman, a “casinierisa” meaning an owner of a restaurant with a stage in which an orchestra is playing. She acquired a lot of money, cars and houses. Today she rents a humble apartment in the Tatavla-Kurtulus where she lives alone in a wheel chair. She seldom exits the door to pray in the nearby St. Demetrius Orthodox Church.
