Beautiful Stranger

I said a few days ago that I was going to watch the movie "Gadjo Dilo" and I finally did yesterday.

I had asked my sister to get the movie from another library with the Inter-Library loan service. It happened to be in VHS, which I don't have, so I was waiting to go one day to her house to watch it, but then I moved here and I didn't have the opportunity. So, she watched the movie and told me it was very boring. Though, I watched it last night and I loved it, really.

The movie goes about this French guy whose father had a tape of a Romany singer called Nora Luca and goes to Romania to find her and record her. But what he finds in Romania is more than what he expected.
I think it is a great movie full of very nice images and wonderful music. Also, there is a scene that is so significant for me: he is walking away of a Gypsy village and everyone is calling him thief. He, the "giant" gadjo dilo (i.e. crazy stranger), the pale-faced, was being yelled at while he was leaving; they were shouting he'd steal their hens.
I really thought that scene was meaningful as, normally, what happens is the other way around.
Almost a year ago I talked about the Gypsies in Barcelona. It is real pity that we think that way. When I explained the try-to Gypsy robbery, I didn't make any prejudgement. Of course, they could be non-Gypsies on a disguise. But, as far as I know, they were.
Along this year I have been thinking about the Roma People a few times. At least in Spain, I have seen many times Gypsies in the trains begging. They say mostly the same, always. They say "io vengo de la Romanía" (the "io" is how they say "yo", i.e. I). I always thought that when they were saying Romanía they really meant Rumanía which is the Spanish for the Eastern European country's name. But, no. Romanía is the Spanish for Roma (people). Which made me think a lot on the difference we see between the Spanish Gypsies (which we call Gitanos) and the "proper" Gypsies, which are those nomad people who come from Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Of course, there is not really much relation between calés and payos. "Calé" are how Spanish Gypsies call themselves (i.e. Rom), and "payo" how they call us, whiteys (i.e. gadjo). I am not talking about the famous ones like Lola Flores and her family, Joaquín Cortés or Farruquito.
There are whole Calé boroughs in any major city of Spain. Even one here in Eivissa, called Sa Penya (i.e. The Crag, as it is in the lower part of the Old Town situated on the rock). Many people has told me over the summer that they would never go through those streets. Though, when my friend was here, we were wandering around and we got in. There was a whole family having dinner in the street and the patriarch made them to let us pass. Obviously, I said 'thank you' but, I had a prejudgement: when we were in the end of the street I thought "When are they gonna come to rob us?" They didn't. I was an arsehole (although it didn't get out of my brain).
There are many in Barcelona. I think their borough is called La Mina (The Mine), if I am not wrong. I have a friend who works there and he was invited to a wedding and he showed us the video. Their wedding consists, mostly, in the virginity check-out (which is painful to her and then the mother or someone goes around with the blood-spotted handkerchief showing that she was a virgin) and then they are brought out on shoulders and thrown sugared almonds (peladillas) for a while (like big big rice grains) and then, the already husband and wife, dance between all of them while the rest sing some song I can't remember ( gigi or something).
In the movie there is an scene of a marriage too but it goes different: more like the Ancient Roman marriage (where they pretended to kidnap the wife). The father shouts and cries saying that he won't let the groom get his daughter. Then, they share some Vodka and hug. Then they dance and sing. Easy, huh? (Much better than the boring sermons at Christian Churches.)
The virgin thing is surprising: they talk about the virginity of their daughters aloud and in public. "We" wouldn't do that. Not even our own.

A book I read not long ago ("¿Qué son las lenguas?" , which translates to "What are Languages?", by Enrique Bernárdez) talks about the word "gadjo". I wrote it down but I have lost the paper, and I don't have the book here. So, if I am not wrong, he says the word "gadjo" or "gadzo" is the masculine of "gadzi" which comes from the name of the Indian Goddess Kali. What surprises me of that (now that I am trying to recall what I read) is that Kali is the Black Madonna (Like the Virgin of Montserrat) in Catalunya or the one of Częstochowa in Poland). This is weird because they are normally darker than "us". But, anyway, I am not sure of that now. I'll have to check it again.
The funny thing of this is that Bart Simpson, in the Spanish dub, calls "gachí" to the "chicks". So, it must have something to be with the word "gadzi", I guess.

There is something that is very interesting. I am not an expert in music or in the Roma culture, but it seems to me that there is a big difference between the traditional Gypsies of Spain or those in the rest of Europe. In Spain they play Flamenco or Cante Jondo. In other countries such France they play traditional Romany music. There is an obvious distinction between different Roma communities because of dialect they speak or origin. Those in Spain, are one of the variants. But, as I see, there is more than language and situation; there is also the clothing, the culture, and so on.

We know nothing about the Roma People, really. We think they are just thieves. Of course, there are, truly. But we can't say that all Russia is a big Mafia family because what we see here in Spain. We can't generalize so much. There are nice, good, humble, honest Calé and Rom, surely. As there are good Catholics or whiteys, I guess.
We should never take things for granted. But, unfortunately, this is just "Human Behaviour".

Again, there is some stuff I wanted to say but I have missed the track.
Please, check the site of the Romani Project in Manchester.
"Gadjo Dilo" is part of a trilogy. Although, I think Tony Gatlif has more than three Gypsy realted movies.
I really like Romain Duris.

There is a song by Mecano that I really like which talks about a Gypsy woman. There is a French version that I like a lot as well. My favourite bit sings:

D'un gitan cannelle
Naquit l'enfant
Tout comme l'hermine,
Il était blanc,
Ses prunelles grises
Pas couleur olive
Fils albinos de lune
"Maudit sois tu, bâtard!
T'es la fils d'un gadjo
T'es le fils d'un blafard."
Dis-Moi Lune d'Argent – Mecano – Aidalai (France)

I couldn't find any video (a part of this one), but here there is the song:
[Lyrics]

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Listening to "Disparaitra" by Rona Hartner, Petre Badea, Valentin Rotary from the album "Gadjo Dilo (Un film de Tony Gatlif)", the OST of the movie (which I have before seeing the movie).