The Crazy Stranger

Stéphane is walking in Romania. He has a cassette player with a woman's voice recorded on it. His father left the tape; the singer's name is Nora Luca and Stéphane wants to find her. In the middle of winter he reaches a village. An old man takes him in; Izidor's son is in prison and the man is drunk. The village is Roma. Stéphane stays. He starts learning the language, goes to weddings, records music. Sabina talks to him. Then something happens between the village and the town nearby. Tony Gatlif writes and directs. Romain Duris plays Stéphane, Rona Hartner plays Sabina and Izidor Serban plays Izidor. It is a French and Romanian co-production. Most of the Roma characters are not professional actors and were cast from the villages. Music is at the centre; the recordings were made in the village and the songs play in full inside the film. Gatlif is of Roma descent himself and returns to the subject throughout his films. The matter it treats is looking from outside; Stéphane collects the music and understands the people's situation late. The narrative does not romanticise the Roma community; poverty, drink and exclusion are inside it. The ending is hard and a decision is made about the recordings. The narrative proceeds in pieces and the plot is weak. Its limit is structure; the narrative is loose, the pace uneven, and the ending abrupt. Who it is for: viewers who like Tony Gatlif's cinema and road films built on music. Who it is not for: it is loose, hard, and the ending bitter.