Gadjo Dilo : the film

They say that in every soul there is a a gypsy.  Well after seeing Gadjo Dilo (Crazy Stranger) , I am not so sure about that.

 Some of us just have had all the gypsy trained out of us at an early age ....but we are still fascinated by the tribe.   I myself have seen a band of gypsies in India, maybe the most beautiful faces I have ever seen and have watched at least four well known movies of these nomads but I will never understand completely.  Each set of them is so different from the others.

In this film , Tony Gatlif, a native Nicois explores still more of the people and their music by placing his story in a Romany camp in Romania.  Briefly, a man is looking for a singer that he heard on a cassette and he finds more.... much more.

The lead is Romaine Duris as Stephane, supposedly from Paris. Also he is teamed with Rona Hartner as the abandoned gypsy girl and Izidor Serban as the wiley old guy.    I am pretty certain that all of the others are non actor gypsies that Gatlif found on site and engaged whole-heartedly in this raunchy and ,I imagine, authentic depiction of gypsy life (at least in this particular camp).  In fact I would say that this is Izidor's first performance and he has done one other film so in my book he is untrained but a natural.

It is a lot of fun to watch the suspicion of the gypsies towards Stephane...of course all of the stereotypes are there that we hear about them....He will steal our children, he will take our chickens etc.

I love the total abandon with which Isidor and Rona go at their roles.  There is so much charm and mischief in Rona.  You think she is gypsy but I know that she is not and that she auditioned and won the part by getting up on the table and singing.  That is her other calling and I wish they had included more of her singing and dancing as she is enchanting at both.  She is an actress totally at ease with her body, with no pretense and no holding back.

The film has no satisfactory resolution ... it sort of peters out at the end,  but if you watch it from the aspect of documentation and sheer bravado of performance, it is charming in its gypsy way.  If you see it, tell me what you think.