Dear Aine:
I did, and it was a wonderful film as Dances With Wolves was a fine piece of film, that was not loved by natives, for the One Lone White Man Savior syndrom, it presented. Gadjo Dilo deeply offended American Roma, who are a cultureal isolate, and are, as a result, much more in keeping with traditional concepts of moral behavior than are some European Roma. Still, Tony Gatlif could not get Roma to say some of the things he wrote, so following the Romaness, the subtitles say very different things. Contrary to the steriotype, Romani women are VERY modest, and there are strong coustoms about not discussing certain sexual things between men and women or intergenerationaly. So when the film was first shown in California, Roma walked out. In New York, I saw it in a special showing with some Roma elders. We had women with us, who were working in my project on Roma rights (I am no longer there for resons that are very complex) We had to get up and move accross the theatre about half way through. I thought the best part of the movie was the first quarter, where the Frenchmen had no idea what was happening, and the Roma saw him in terms of steriotypes used against them, murderer, chicken thief etc. Although it presents a pointent view of the distruction of a Roma village, the reality is that Roma villiges in Rumania were burned without provocation.
But, that all said, it did a great job to awaken many people to the plight of Eastern European Roma, and Tony makes great films, politically I liked Latcho Drom better, as it did less fictionalizing, though again, his subtitles did not follow the Romaness when he wanted to make a point.
Nyees tuka, shaya, hai das baxtalay:
Lolya (Larry)