Gadjo dilo

This film tells of one man's search for a singer amidst the chaotically beautiful gypsies of Roumania. It is a delicious, funny, crazy and richly erotic celebration of the wildness in the human spirit. Yet there is a shadowy undercurrent that surfaces at times in the film. This is honestly faced and thus the story avoids romanticising of a culture that the director evidently knows well (he was of gypsy birth himself). Despite the destructive power of this shadow what remains is a sense of the power of survival, joy, and a memory of music that is compelling beautiful.

"Gadjo Dilo" shows the trip of a young man in search of a voice that he fell in love with. Stéphane (Roman Duris) is a musicologist that just follows his guts, his instinct, to find the mysterious singer Nora Luca in Romania. He follows a passionate and realistic journey that teaches himself the gypsy way of being. Quite different from the Kusturica approach, Tony Gatlif's music is more intimate of the true gypsy soul and enables us to feel and understand it. With this "musical anthropological" view a stunning portrait of this culture is made, with all it's roughness and spontaneity. As a viewer i grew as a person with this movie, some preconceptions were broken and a great admiration was born for the Romanian nomads.

I believe that "Gadjo Dilo" is a true approach to the gypsy way of being, a music that will inspire your future steps.

I would just like to say a few words about the comment of bplesa, which is more or less correct, but, in my opinion, needs some explaining regarding the title of the movie. I doubt that "crazy romanian" would be a correct translation since the title most probably refers to the french guy which, obviously, is not romanian. It could be "extended" to "crazy stranger" since he is a stranger, but i think the only translation that can be considered correct is "Crazy Guy". Gadjo and Dilo, the two words from the title, are used in romanian slang, as "gagiu", respectively "diliu", and of course were adopted from Romani (the language of the gypsies). There meaning is: gagiu=guy, diliu=crazy, so... I think that says it all.

There's several reasons for it. Rona Hartner's acting. Adrian "Copilu minune" Simionescu's music and, maybe most of all, Izidor Serban's intensity. As far as I know, he is a complete acting amateur. My wife is Romanian, and I play bass with one, maybe the only, gypsy orchestra in Sweden - with roma from Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria. I know their language a bit, but it is not the same dialect as in the movie, which I guess is "kaldarash", the guys in the band speaks "arlija". We do some of Adrian's songs, though... If you liked this movie I recommend the documentary "Iag Bari", which is a film about the moldovan gypsy brass band Fanfare Ciocârlia.

Wow !! Where do they get these amazing people. Definately not Hollywood

that's for sure. I can't say I've seen a more sincere film, the raw energy running through this film still makes me crack a smile or shed a tear whenever I think about it.