Gadjo dilo (1997)
Directed by Tony Gatlif

Film Review

Gadjo dilo concludes Tony Gatlif's loosely assembled and highly acclaimed trilogy exploring the culture of the Romany gypsies.  After Les Princes (1982), a grim portrait of gypsy life in Paris, and Latcho drom (1993), an unusual musical documentary, Gadjo dilo is a more conventional and therefore more accessible work, which is reflected by the greater popularity of this film.  Whereas Gatlif's previous two gypsy films presented Roma as a world apart from our own, here he attempts to bridge the gulf between our two very different cultures, luring us into the colourful and earthy life of the gypsies and getting us to experience their way of life as if we were the outsider.

With its raw neo-realist style and unstructured narrative, Gadjo dilo has the feel and impact of a documentary.  Most of the characters are played by real Romany gypsies and are full-blooded individuals with whom it is easy to engage.  This is especially true of the magnificent Izidor Serban, whose genuine persona and charisma saturate the film, providing a focus for all that we see.  By contrast, actress Rona Hartner's performance feels overly self-conscious and largely unconvincing.  Sometimes non-professional actors do a far better job than their professional counterparts.

This is indeed a hugely sympathetic film which gives us a rare and valuable insight into a culture which cinema or television seldom, if ever, appears interested in.  Gatlif does not glamorise the life of the nomad and indeed goes out of his way to show the squalor and hardship endured by these people.  Yet there is a seductive warmth which emerges from Gatlif's portrayal of a people with whom he clearly has a close affinity.  The film does a great deal to demystify the Romany people, imbuing the spectator with a sense of respect and compassion for a race that has suffered unimaginable hostility and rejection over the past centuries.

The film features Romain Duris, a promising young actor who has rarely served a film so well as he does here.  His part in the Gadjo dilo is pivotal, as it is the mechanism by which we, the apprehensive spectators, are drawn into this alien culture.  At the same time, Duris portrays the typical privileged Westerner and a social outcast, someone we can identify with but who also is out of place in the world of Roma.  There is a natural sense of wonder in Duris' face when he confronts his new environment and allows himself to be taken over by it, which we cannot help sharing.  The spell is broken only at the end of the film when the character played by Duris makes his decision to burn his bridges and throw his lot in with the people he now belongs to.  Few of us would go that far, but Gatif's provocative challenge that perhaps we should manages to hit hard.  It is a pessimistic ending because it implies that it is impossible to belong simultaneously to the two cultures, and that they will always remain apart, mistrustful and contemptuous of the other, nothing changing.

Whatever Tony Gatlif's intentions were for making this eye-opening film, it remains a powerfully humanist piece of cinema.  Whilst its portrayal of gypsy promiscuity is a bit overdone and the ending is perhaps unnecessarily over-dramatic, Gadjo dilo offers a refreshingly sincere portrait of an unfamiliar culture whilst telling a story that is easy to engage with.

Film Synopsis

A young Frenchman, Stéphane, is making his way across rural Romania in search of a gypsy singer who fascinated his recently deceased father.  In a remote village he is befriended by an old man, Isidor who is mourning the arrest of his son.  Isidor invites the stranger to stay in his home and, reluctantly, Stéphane accepts.  At first, local gypsies spurn the Frenchman, fearing he may be a thief, but then, recognising his respect for their culture, they accept him.  Isidor belongs to a group of travelling musicians which is accompanied by the exotic dancer Sabina.  The latter is a near-outcast since her failed marriage to a Belgian.   Stéphane is attracted to the fiery Sabina, although she apparently has no desire to get mixed up with another Westerner…