Queen of the Gypsies

I was a kid (in 6th grade) when I saw this movie , Of course I liked this movie for different reasons : I was attracted at that time by the music , by the intensity of scenes ....etc. Now as a mature person I can add more to that picture : the costumes are beautiful , the image is beautiful , sunny , colorful , and after all who can forget the mesmerizing eyes of Rada especially in two scenes : when she stopped with a single look the unchained horses of the baron and second scene with Luicu Zoibar. Now a lot of time elapsed since the movie was released , the director Emil Loteanu and actor Grigore Grigoriu are not with us , but this gem is actual and brand new , it never got old . I agree that is better than Gatliff or Kusturica as a gypsy movie , nobody was more authentic in depicting gypsy life as Loteanu , costumes are authentic , besides main characters the rest of SATRA are real ethnic Gypsies , not look- alike , songs are sung in Romany not Russian or whatever , and they were sung in a lot of weddings or parties in Romania , everybody knew them (even people who never watched the movie).As I said Gypsies are depicted as they are : with qualities , with defects , no stereotypes , unbiased. They are not the Gypsies of SNATCH , where Brad Pitt looks anything you like : Chinese,Arab,east-European.....whatever but never like a gypsy. Who wants to know more about Roma nation they should watch this movie . It is a sad and impossible love but I do not say more I let the viewer to judge this movie . Myself I was impressed and I had a wonderful experience re-watching this movie , you award this with an Oscar and still is not enough... It is a must see !

A poem about freedom and love. A strange world of joy, ambitions and desires. A form of escape and a colorful dream.

Emil Loteanu was a special director for the way chosen. His movies, products of Sovietic cinema, are, very often, touching skits of a raw cardboard's space. The stake- to prove the identity of a small nation in a empire. The means- Russian art of purlieus. Accent on the dramatic themes and emotions like only message.

"Tabor ukhodit v nebo" is only a picturesque film about a imaginary community. His importance is not small because the Gipsys are the product, in the self-image ,of this movie, slice of a possible golden age at the beginning of XXth century. In same time, it is a good introduction to Kusturica filmography, with the aspects of a ambiguous Balkan's life, with songs and carousals with barbarian persistent taste, with full of color atmosphere and any way of business.

So, a good film for Bovaric public, for the Kakania's nostalgics, for amateurs of subtle kitsch, for the fans of actors, for old Gipsys or dreamers. But, in fact,it is only a ethnographic foray in Maxim Gorki's pathetic universe. Eastern Europe- like a strange endless Gypsy's song.

This film, known as "Satra" - a group of wandering gypsies - to the Romanians is definitely worth viewing. Based on a short novel by Gorki, it gives a snapshot of Gypsy life in the Far-Eastern part of the Habsburg Empire. Nevertheless, the film is a bit diminished by its 1970s-Soviet origin: many badly played-back songs, a soundtrack that tends to give a hippy-70s flavors to the Gypsy songs. I'm not so enthusiastic about the work of the composer who rather spoiled the Gypsy music than improved it. In this domain, Goran Bregovici keeps the lead. The RUSCICO DVD edition includes some interesting bonus though not very enlightening. Notice that the script was refused by the Moldovan Film Studios so that it was shot by the Moscow film studios.

Moldovan director Emil Loteanu's tenth feature film is probably his most famous one. "Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven" (1976) was a huge hit in the USSR, the most watched film in cinemas that year and also something that the critics fancied. The film, based on two stories by Maxim Gorki, is a depiction of wandering Gypsies in the turn-of-the-century Austria-Hungary. These people travel from one place to the next without staying long. They dance, they sing, and they fall in love.

Loteanu's film is very colorful and kind of other-worldly in its depiction of history. Though it is supposed to be taking place in 1900 or something, the gypsies at times look like 1970's hippies, and the look of the film is a tad anachronistic. It is not a narrative-driven film, but instead focuses on the atmosphere. There is a lot of gypsy music in it, which was historically interesting, and many of the songs were a joy to listen to. As a depiction of a disappearing way of life, this film works well. As a well-thought-out artistic experience, it's pretty messy. Some will like it more than others.

In the film there is no Romanian cast, all of the characters are played by Soviet actors. Moreover, with all of more or less authentic Gypsy features it has nothing to do with actual Gypsies. Gypsies here are metaphoric of some kind of people who follow different laws and rules than ordinary people; they are people who prefer the spiritual to the material, freedom to routine, passion to compromise, etc. With this approach most of the criticism expressed in some of the previous comments becomes irrelevant.

In the USSR there was no sex, it's true. There was passion and love -- love that burns.

Love that burns -- that's what the film tells about, and for this good cause all means is of use: transgression, tantra, pagan cults, dionysism, dark magic. This story can be named as well a Russian Carmen. Brilliant performance of Emil Lotjanu (director), Eugene Doga (music), Serguey Vronsky (photography), Svetlana Toma (awarded as the best Soviet actress of the year for the part of Rada), Grigore Grigoriu(Zobar), Borislav Brondukov (Buca) and others. Great art of a great civilization. Get it and enjoy seeing.