Gadjo dilo

I was truly captivated by this seductive journey into the well-insulated lives of the gypsies. It takes a non-judgmental view and refrains from clichés. The film takes on a somewhat cinema variete approach and uses many non-professional actors for the supporting roles. This approach was successful and didn't distract from film's story. The film follows a young Frenchman on a quest to find a gypsy singer on an audio tape he has. I was able to catch it late one night on cable and have not been able to find it in any video store for rent. This movie really needs a DVD release so we can get it from Netflix. Someone should pick this one up for release.

"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.

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.

Great movie, i don't have enough words to say more. Those guys are my neighbours. The movie was shot in the small village of Cretulesti, two km away from my house. I know them, i lived among them, and yes , many of them are like in the movie. They live. The majority of the "white" population is discriminating them , considering that they are a inferior race. They have their guilt, but the government is doing nothing to change this situation. Comparing to this, Kusturica's movies are like little kittens. Tony Gatlif is a great story teller, with clean directing skills. This movie "hunted" me for a several days, i can't get enough of it. Despite their lack of mood for working, the gypsies are the greatest singers in the world. 10/10

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.