Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven

Annotation for KRRR! 2016 by Jakub Třešňák

"Do not love money, it will deceive you. Do not love women, they will deceive you. The most intoxicating of all wines is freedom."

In Eastern cinema, there are several films that depict the life of the Gypsy people. There are films that present them as a people living on the margins of society without moral principles and customs, such as Aleksandar Petrovic's famous Yugoslav black new wave film Merchant's Feathers (1967). But we also find works that depict the Gypsies as a romantically unbridled nomadic people with a relationship to music, magic and nature. And this is exactly what happens in the legendary film Gypsies Go to Heaven (1975) by director Emil Loteanu, which is based on Maxim Gorky's short story Makar Chudra and which you can see at this year's KRRR!.

A lyrically told story from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries captures the decay of Gypsy traditions and values. On one side stands Russian society, on the other is the free and still nomadic community of Gypsies. Between them is a Gypsy thief The horseman Zobar, who with his gang of friends renounces the moral principles of gypsy life, although he still believes in the magical effects of the moonstone. Traditional values, on the other hand, are represented by the young gypsy Radda, who does not want to be tied down by a man and dreams of remaining free. It goes without saying that it is Zobar and Redda who begin to be attracted to each other.

The loving connection of these characters and the inevitable clash of their value systems form the core of Lotean's film, in which people dance and sing as passionately as they love and hate.