This was one of the delightful movies that deals with the worst racism you can find on Earth... no, it's not towards the African Americans - even if they are the loudest - but towards Roma people who are still experiencing the same like 100 years before but with their freedoms reduced to nothing! When I was a kid, Roma people were roaming Europe freely, no documents, no passports, no registrations for their horse carriages or carts... they have nothing left, except music... and racism, from before.
Romeo and Juliette the Roma way is done the best possible way, with their music! Yes, the Balkan music became their music because they enriched everyone else they were nearby and made things better, even when society claims the opposite. People with a soul, a soul that sings and understands the shortness of this life, the insignificance of living without love... and they live with full lungs, breathing and exhaling with the rhythm of their heartbeats. Trumpet fights instead of those with weapons are refreshing...
Romeo, Romeo... why are you Roma? - asks the hero knowing the reality and fights because he believes in something most of us forgot - the real love always wins! Music is emotional and captivating, especially for people who listen and enjoy the sound of the trumpet, and there is a reason behind it as the young Roma man in love explains: "When you blow through the pipe on the other side you come out as an emotion that you carry inside you, which becomes music. My real father used to say: When the breath dies, the tone is lost."
The film feels real as it could be... this is about a world where parents forget that their riches are not golden trumpets polished with a "magic cloth" but their own flash and blood... I will say just one more thing: This is my favourite Romeo and Juliette adaptation... for a reason! This is NOT a masterpiece of a cinematography but it is the best film I've seen in the genre of combining romantic comedy and classical adaptation! So, try, maybe you like it, too!
