IMDb user comments for
Gadjo dilo (1997)

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30 comments in total

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28 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
They live, 25 December 2004

Author: fitzcarraldo from Romania

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

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14 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
I simply loved it., 30 April 2005
Author: magnus-pettersson from Sweden

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.

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18 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
I'll drink to that, 12 October 2003
Author: marco (headmix) from Sydney, Australia

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.

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13 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Nothing compares to it, 28 May 2005

Author: duk3 from Romania

Gadjo Dilo stroked me in a most unconventional way. I saw it at a friend without knowing or expecting what it will be about. Very realistic and sincere, with raw images and beautiful shots, it simply shook me up. The way gypsies are presented is a true insight of their culture and way of living. The acting, done by amateurs at most, is flawless, especially by Izidor who delivers perfectly. Even if the story is hardly present, the movie doesn't need one as it slowly goesdeep with drama, comedy, ethnicity and music. Overall Gadjo Dilo (free translation Crazy Dude) is an unexpected gem from Tony Gatlif that is different from everything I've seen. Misto!

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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
A Frenchman finds his muse in a Romanian gypsy village, 12 August 1998

Author: Pete Lewis (plewis1925@earthlink.net) from Satellite Beach, Florida, USA

This lyrical, poetic masterpiece of cinematic art sucks you into the minds and souls of a still enigmatic, clannish culture, as Stephane, the urbanised, DAT-carrying Frenchman confronts both his own Western attitudes and the wistful, dogged independence of an oft persecuted race. The veracity of the work borders on cinema verite, such is the power of the performances coaxed with consummate skill by writer/director Tony Gatlif, himself a Romany, from a largely non-professional cast.

The plot hardly bears mentioning, as this is an exemplar of film as art, i.e. an exploration of the human spirit. One could wax lyrical about Stephane's mission to find the gypsy singer who's voice chicken skins him as a journey into his own psyche, or other such pyschobabble, but ultimately, even though framed by a love story and imbued with classical dramatic elements of pathos, comedy and tragedy, through all the elements that make film such a singular artistic vehicle - sound, music, image, performance - this work envelops you in swaddling-cloth, twists at the core of your soul, and vicariously makes you pursue the Holy Grail of the meaning of life.

I can't claim to have seen anything in at least a year, probably dating back to "Welcome to the Dollhouse", that has touched me in the way that this work did. For all those who think that trite eye candy like "Saving Private Ryan" represents a milestone in cinema art, an education moment in the company of Stephane and his collective muse will persuade you that true artistic creativity lies in exposing the seemingly mundane banalities that constitute our daily lives.

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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Gypsy music and a man discovering his past, 13 September 2005

Author: luiern from Sydney

In life you do come across with little gems of movies. Gadjo dilo represents that, tenderness, simplistic and genuine approach to the soul of the gypsy people. Hard not to be moved by movies like this that essentially portray so beautifully a piece of a persons life. The music is great, a major discovery in my life and although seen it years ago i still treasure it as one of the reasons why i enjoy watching movies. Most of the actors of the movie did not have formal training and they manage to pull it together in a way that accomplished ones would have real trouble to do so. One of those movies that reinstate your faith in the homelessness of the good quality cinema NOT TO BE MISSED

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11 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
A beautiful movie that's going to echo in your memory for a long time., 25 August 2005

Author: Filipa Amim from Portugal

"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.

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16 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Kusturica did it better, 16 December 2003
Author: Dan Dragan from Chicago

I rented the movie wishing to see why would Vadim Tudor , the leader of the ultra-nationalist movement in Romania , be angry at a relatively unknown actress of Jewish descent but born in Romania , called Rona Hartner.

I found this to be one charming movie but please, do not, by any means , take it as a documentary or search any sociological value in it. Otherwise you might be tempted to believe that the gypsies are a cute, merry, high-spirited people kept in cruel slavery by the oppressing Romanians. There are two sides to every story, remember that, and the movie does a wonderful job at presenting one and only one passionate side of it. Check Kusturica's movies for a more complete/impartial vision on gypsies , their joys and their troubles, without the romantic halo that Tony Gatlif casted upon them in his movie. Bear in mind that the Romanians (even as depicted in the movie) are as poor and oppressed as the gypsies, and , to spit it out, that the "the uncontaminated world of the gypsies","the gypsy culture" and "the chaotically beauty of gypsies" are to be placed in the context of active refusal and defiance of established modern society rules, an attitude that the majority of the gypsies still openly professes - an attitude which makes them at least undesirable for the majority in any of the countries they are living - and this is what Gatlif doesn't show and Kusturica rejoice in displaying.

What's enjoyable here is the human story , at times joyful, at times moving and full of sorrow - a story that transcends the ethnic borders of the movie. As a Romanian who lived quite a while in a mixed nationality village and knows "the subject" quite well, I have to congratulate Rona Hartner on a perfect impersonation of a 'piranda', and Izidor Serban on a moving role that could have started a career.And I do understand why Vadim Tudor was angry at her ;-).

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
When will it be on DVD, 28 January 2005

Author: tikinoise from United States

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.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
A deeply moving celebration of the wildness in the human spirit, 11 October 1998

Author: John Webber (johnwebber@btinternet.com) from Brighton, England

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.

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