Movie: The Crazy Stranger - Gadjo dilo (Tony Gatlif, 1997)
Very fitting that Romain Duris starred in L'Auberge Espagnole, an unseen by me 2002 film, about the experiences of western European Erasmus exchange students. You can easily imagine Duris and his full head of French hair be visible all around Paris in advertisements for studying at the Sorbonne, a poster child for 'civilised' Europe and its ideals of middle class mobility, progress and sophistication. As a certified fan of the European Union I happily subscribe to those ideals, but they have always been used (and not just by the Le Pens of the world) to stake out a difference between the 'good' Europeans and the uncivilised, dangerous, 'others'. Often times those others are Romani people. Tony Gatlif, the only Roma director to have won the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, knows exactly what he is doing when casting Duris as Stephane, a Frenchman who goes to a Roma village comunity in Romania to track down Nora Luca, a singer he has a cherished cassette tape of.
Stephane does not get a warm welcome. He is greeted as a crazy stranger who acts in ways that are completely alien to the way of life of the community. The village people fear him and pillar the kind Izidor who helpfully offers Stephane shelter and food, for potentially bringing unknown diseases into their midst. Once they figure out more abotu Stephane they conflate France and Belgium as interchangable exotic places that are far away from them. It's a funny and politically productive role reversal that never plays as cheap parody, because Gatlif doesn't turn it into a belabored metaphor. The cast mostly consists of amateur actors, basically real Romanian villagers probably playing something close to themselves, and the film presents their behavior and reaction to Stephane as authentic, without judging them.
It also helps that Gatlif isn't much interested in great narrative developments. By the time we learn why Stephane has come to the vilage and why the cassette tape means so much to him, we barely care anymore. At that point, Stephanse has long become accepted into the community and The Crazy Stranger has become an energetic and fun hang out film, mostly interested in celebrating the culture of the people we see on screen. That mostly involves making music and dancing, greatly enjoyed by Stephany, partly because the young Sabine is especially interested in making music and dancing with him. The film is at its best when Stephane and Sabina go around the villages recording traditional folk songs, briefly turning this into a relaxed concert movie. Gatlf is happy to let it continue its meanderingly gentle course, until the ending scenes remind us that a sustained peaceful existence for the Roma is hard to come by.
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