Transylvania

Zingarina arrives in Romania. She is looking for the man she met in France who was deported; she is pregnant and wants him to know. Two friends are with her. She finds him and he does not want her. She leaves her friends and takes to the road alone; in Transylvania she attaches herself to a trader who moves from village to village and starts travelling with him. Tony Gatlif writes and directs. Asia Argento plays Zingarina. It was the closing film of the Cannes film festival in 2006. It continues Gatlif's films about Roma culture; this time the narrative is fiction rather than documentary, but music is again at the centre and most of the musicians come from local communities. The subject is not settling. Zingarina is on the road not because she belongs nowhere but because she does not want to stop anywhere, and the film does not build that as a story of freedom either. Asia Argento plays the part physically and unsteadily; the character is not likeable and the film does not try to correct her. The images and the music are strong and the narrative is weak; the plot comes apart in the middle and the scenes do not follow one another. Who it is for: viewers who like Gatlif's films, Balkan music and road narratives. Who it is not for: the structure is scattered, the character's decisions are not explained, and the film does not tell a straight story.