Gypo

Gypo is an interesting British film, once again proving good stuff doesn't have to come from Hollywood. A typical(?) British family lives a life of lies and deals with things as best they can until they meet a Chec mother and daughter who change their world. Gypo is apparently Brit slang for Gypsy/immigrants. This film proves that people all over the world are intolerant of others and are hypocrites. A couple of unexpected story swings made it a little more refreshing than the often mundane screen depiction of the disintegration of a family. Since the film took the same story from several points of view, it allowed you to better understand the characters background. I was glad that they really segregated the stories, otherwise it would have been confusing. All in all a good dramatic film.

Gypo was a big disappointment. At the start of the film the screenplay was very unrealistic and I told my girlfriend about ten minutes in that if it didn't get better I would turn it off. I held out and when the story changed person it got a lot better.

Pauline McLynn outperformed the script, she is capable of far better things. However, despite her best efforts, she just couldn't convince that Paul McGann was her husband; they were a mismatch. The star of the show was Chloe Sirene, who pulled off the Czech accent so well that she had me convinced (it wasn't until I watched the DVD extras that I found out she was English).

All in all this is a poor film. I think the director was so obsessed with meeting the rules of the 'dogme' method that she was ignorant to the fact that people would actually have to watch it. Why make a film to comply with a set of rules when you should be making it to pleasure the viewer?

Gypo (offensive slang for 'Gypsy') is a film that connects with the audience on the issue of racial tensions in a way that few films can. It does so by use of great British talent but more controversially using the 'Dogme' stylistic method of film-making. It explodes myths about refugees and exposes attitudes that need to be dealt with. It tells three sides to the same story, each with an equal intensity, and makes us care.

The Dogme experiment was invented as a backlash tool against the formulaic approach of Hollywood movies where anything can be 'made' to look real given enough money and special effects to trick the audience. Dogme tries to go back to the basics of art in film by a self-imposed discipline of ten 'rules' known as the Vow of Chastity. These include no added effects (such as added music, sudden time and location shifts, superficial action such as murders) and using only hand held cameras and basic lighting. The point is to force the attention onto the abilities of the actors especially and not let the director off the hook with quick-fix technical solutions or dazzlements. (For the complete 'Vow', go here: http://www.dogme95.dk/the_vow/vow.html) Working under that sort of pressure, very many Dogme attempts have been failures, but the successes have been very noticeable. The sense of 'reality' is so acute that a relatively minor plot development can have immense impact.

At one point as I watched the film, an understated emotion just hit me hard in the chest and brought tears to my eyes: one of the characters (Helen) has become friends with some Romany refugees who are being subjected to racial abuse. Making light of it ("They were going cheap in Asda"), she gives one of them a phone as a present, playing it down so as not to seem overprotective. I thought: I don't care if this is fiction or reality, that is a very real, poignant, caring, loving emotion she has just expressed. The film had connected with me in a way that went beyond suspension of disbelief, and it was worthwhile and uplifting to experience. A similar reaction happened as the plot explored more intense passions.

Helen is in marriage to Paul that could be described a long-term but loveless, "Don't wake the baby up," he says to her gently as he takes his conjugal rights on her - against her will. Helen feels used. Paul is at his wits end from poverty in spite of hard work. He blames refugees for taking people's jobs (even though he doesn't think it below him to use them when he sees fit). Helen feels she just clears up the mess for everyone else, including her unmarried daughter and granddaughter. Her life has no point.

Tasha, an attractive Romany Czeck refugee who wants to better herself, comes into their life, hoping to get a passport, citizenship and freedom – things everyone else takes for granted. She is also in mortal fear of her Czeck husband and brothers who might come looking for her.

I watched Gypo at the UK Premiere and so was very fortunate to be able to speak to the cast and crew briefly. I asked one of the actors if working under Dogme had been different. There was an intensity in his voice as he recalled it – he said, you can't fake anything! Normally there is a point in the script where it might say, 'you killed someone' but of course everyone knows it's not real because people don't actually get killed in films. With Dogme, if you really can't do it, it isn't done. The effect is the audience buys in to what is being presented with a lot more trust. (All of the script in Gypo is improvised, although this is not a requirement of Dogme technique.) I asked Paul McGann (who plays Paul) further what advice he would give an actor planning to make a Dogme movie. He replied, "Get plenty of sleep!" then added on a more thoughtful note, "and have an open mind." Dogme looks pretty weird, but with results like Gypo it is hard to knock it, so have an open mind till you've seen it.

Gypo produces a remarkably convincing look at a dysfunctional working class British family, with its goodness and badness, and it made me feel proud to be in a country that is producing such high quality, riveting cinema (and on such an incredibly tiny budget!) It unites art, gripping entertainment and responsible social comment in a way that few films aspire to and many less achieve. Director Jan Dunn cares about making movies in a way that shows integrity to the medium, responsibility within society, and a duty to give the audience every penny's worth of its ticket money. Her enthusiasm and skill provide a role model for aspiring filmmakers to emulate. For all its subject matter, Gypo is one of the most moving and joyous films I've seen recently and probably the best British film I've seen this year.

Being a Czech myself, I feel kind of about this movie. On the one hand, it is very didactic, simple, sometimes pathetic, but at the same time: Be it so. It is necessary and it does the so-called "job":

1.look-at-yourselves-you-sometimes-dumb-and- blind-Brits-it's-never-black-and-white,

2.look-at-yourselves-you-damned-Czechs- you're-not-able-to-protect-your-citizens, and the Roma situation in your country is really BAD

3.or: cultural diversity is good, everyone has something to contribute with,

4.or: not everyone is a money-thirsty economical immigrant.

On the other hand, the family background and relations of these "Czech" refugees and their portrayal was something I had to cringe at. Truth is that I was wondering about Sirene's (Tasha's) accent all way long...and, with a great uncertainty, I concluded she must have been Slovak. (I didn't know she was English, so in a way her accent was persuasive, although it def. wasn't Czech) I assumed that her mother (Irina/Rula Lenska) must be Russian or Polish because these couple of words she uttered definitely weren't Czech, rather this Slavic universal mixture. The only Czech sentence she says is "miluju te" which means i love you, which is commonly used in English, but rarely amnong parents and children, rather for lovers. Another thing - Romanies tend to speak Romani language among each other, especially the older generation.

However, these are minor details I can overlook. But what the hell was this bunch of guys, both Sub-Carpatian Ukrainian and mafioso like looking, that came after them??? I can't think of a single place in the Czech Republic where gypsies would look anything like it, not mentioning the fact that after 40 yrs of communism there's zero left of their traditional life. I mean Romanies of course have their communities, but a vast majority of them dress like other Czechs. In Gypo even the caravans (altho for refugees) were there to suggest this traditional nomadic life. The way Tasha's mother dressed and decorated herself is rarely seen among the Czech gypsies.

If these refugees were from Slovakia or Romania, I would find it more credible.

I got through this movie on the strength of the performances. I'm sure it does reflect how many ordinary Britons live their lives and their attitude to refugees. I quite liked the many views of life in Margate. The roving camera style was very low budget, an almost documentary style of following the drama, almost as low key as found footage dramas. The story was sweet, which was OK, and in the end that sweetness ran counter to the brutal attitudes of some of the players. If you are looking for a very realistic look at one family's stuck-in-a-rut dynamics, and the effect on that family of coming in contact with a couple trying to settle after fleeing from Europe, then this is for you.