The Celluloid Drom: Romani Images in Russian Cinema
2003; Wayne State University Press; Volume: 44; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1559-7989
Autores Tópico(s)Romani and Gypsy Studies
ResumoIn comparison to the West, there is not much material documenting the life of Romanies in Russia, and traditionally they have not made films about themselves. Various regional TV stations have produced documentaries on the Romanies that, in most cases, have been dedicated to investigating issues of crime. Nowadays, however, with the growing social exploitation and discrimination of the Romanies, the issues of representation in the media and in cinema are becoming of vital importance. For more than 100 years of Russian film, images of Romanies have occupied an important and unique place in Soviet and Russian cinema. But long before 'going celluloid,' the Romani people or 'tzyigane' have been immortalized by some of the greatest Russian writers. Depicted almost exclusively in romantic colours in the works of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Gorky and Bunin, they became the symbol of freedom and were seen as a positive alternative, as the Russian classic description goes, to the 'loathsomeness' of Russian life. Films about the Roma can be divided into two categories, depending on the position of Gypsies or Romani culture in relation to the film as a whole. Films such as Poslednii tabor / The Last Camp (Moisei Goldblat and Yevgeni Shneider, USSR, 1936), Dorogoi tsenoi /At Great Cost (Mark Donskoi, USSR, 1957), Lautary (Emil Loteanu, USSR, 1972), Tabor ukhodit v nebo/ Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven (Emil Loteanu, USSR, 1976), Tsygan / Gypsy (Alexander Blank, USSR, 1979), Tsyganskoye shchast'e/Gypsy Happiness (Sergei Nikonenko, USSR, 1983), Vozvrashchenie Budulaia/The Return of Budulay (Alexander Blank, USSR, 1985), Tsyganka Assa/Assa the Gypsy (Grigori Kokhan, USSR, 1987), Gadjo (Dmitrii Svetozarov, Russia, 1993), Ia vinovat /It's My Fault (Dufunya Vishnevskiy, Russia, 1993), Greshnye apostoly lyubvi /The Sinful Apostles of Love (Dufunya Vishnevskiy, Russia, 1995) almost entirely focus on Russian Gypsies. Other films have strong Romani subplots or key characters, such as Bespridannitsa /Without Dowry (Iakov Protazanov, USSR, 1936), Svad'ba v Malinovke /Wedding in Malinovka (Andrei Tutyshkin, USSR, 1967), or Zhestokii romans /A Cruel Romance (Eldar Ryazanov,1984). Made before the Soviet Union was established, early silent films featuring extensive Romani plots include Alexander Khanzhonkov's production Drama v tabore podmoskovskikh tsygan /Drama in a Gypsy Camp Near Moscow (Vladimir Siversen, Russia, 1908) and Zhivoy trap /A Living Corpse (Cheslav Sabinsky, 1918) based on Leo Tolstoy's novel, with Russian silent cinema star Vera Kholodnaya.1 The first Soviet fiction movie about Russian Rona, Poslednii tabor, appeared in 1936. The Artkino Studio's publicity annotation described the film as 'a lyrical saga of people forever searching a dream of happiness.' The film, directed by Jewish filmmakers Moisei Goldblat and Yevgeni Shneider, was a typical example of Soviet collectivization propaganda and demonstrated how the State was extending its control not only over that symbol of freedom, the Gypsies, but over the population as a whole. The story opens with the arrival of a Romani caravan at a Russian kolkhoz (collective farm). The farmers decide it would be a good idea to put the horses of the Gypsy vagabonds to work. At first the Gypsies are not particularly keen to commit to building the bright communist future, but soon thereafter they, all of a sudden, feel a strong attraction to the perspective of working together with the Russian kolkhozniks. Later they are seen enthusiastically cultivating the land together with the farmers. Tired but happy, in the evening the Gypsies throw themselves into singing and dancing around moonlit campfires. Despite several fistfights at the beginning, by the end of the film everyone gets along just beautifully. It is worth mentioning that the Romanies in this movie were played by professional actors from the world's first Romani language theatre Romen which had opened in Moscow in 1931. …
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