I was thinking for some time to start a series of releases featuring my Romani people. I know that the upcoming Diaspora Days in India have a
Romani focus. In this sense, I considered that this documentary, although it has some flows, would be a good introduction (right now I don't think it exists a better one). Its name,
Latcho drom, means in Romani "Good road", being a usual farewell saying.
It is a musical journey from Rajasthan to Spain, covering the migration of the Roma from the 11th century until nowadays. There are no subtitles, because they are not needed. The documentary shows short moments of the daily life followed by songs, there is no narration. It aims to present info without narration, supposing some previous knowledge, that's why I added further descriptions. Just at the beginning somebody talks for few minutes in Romani about how our ancestors emigrated from the Subcontinent, became scattered worldwide and suffered many persecutions.
Here is the
IMDb link.
For more detailed info about Romani people you may see
this series of articles.
I'd like to quote from there a kind of introduction:
Thinking about how to begin a proper introduction of my people in a Desi cyberspace, it seemed to me that, at least in the contemporary context, such info looks rather worthy of an ultimate 2 crore question at KBC. What do you think of this: name the South Asian population emigrated from the Subcontinent a millennium ago, nevertheless preserving all this time in the European, American or Australian heartlands of the Western civilization the caste purity rules, their Indo-Aryan language, whose number is nowadays of about 15-20 million people.
The background of the answer is a less noticed South Asian emigration that landed in the Byzantine Empire. It happened in the 11th century, in the context of Mahmud Ghazni's attacks in Northern India. Until nowadays the details of this migration remain unclear. The ethnic names point rather to basic meanings, not to a specific group: Rom (married person)/ Chhavo (unmarried person), Manush (human being), Kalo (black). They remind somehow of the other more recent Diaspora name, Desi, expressing the consciousness of the basic South Asian identity, as revealed while living among non-South Asians. The choices of names may reflect also the conditions of the two emigrations. While the word Desi indicates the continuity of the connections with the motherland, the Romani names express a regrouping around the basic tenets of the South Asian identity and the desire to continue it wherever they live. In the 11th century's context, when the Byzantine Empire was in a continuous conflict with its eastern neighbor, the Seljuk Empire, it would have been impossible to preserve any link with the Subcontinent. It is also probable they imagined themselves as the survivors, after witnessing that temporary destruction of the North Indian society.
Later, as the Romani population grew in some areas, there reappeared a Romani caste system. However, the Romani presence in Diaspora remained every time unofficial, the Romanipen (Romani Dharm) was never recognized, being dismissed as a non-culture or as a counter-culture. The emigration happened when the situation of the human rights was appalling and the local people rather tried to assimilate the ancestors. To justify that they are right and we wrong, they created the Gypsy imagery, a malevolent caricature, that took our place in the public space and perpetuated a cultural rift.
The initial two parts deal with some uncertainties about the early Romani history. In the first part, in Rajasthan, the director Tony Gatliff, chooses some local musicians to play traditional Rajasthani music. The fact is that, although it is obvious from the Romani language the Roma come from Rajasthan-Punjab area, it is not clear yet who were our ancestors in the Subcontinent, so those people would not be necessarily representative as the local “cousins” of the Roma. Anyway, they look like some local musicians who play such characters for the sake of this documentary.
Rajasthan screenshots:
The second part is in Egypt. In the Middle East there are old Desi groups, but it is not known their exact relation with the Roma. The Egyptian part features such a population. I see some differences compared to the Roma, for example, the behavior of the women, you won’t see them in the next parts like this, they are more restrained. In fact among Roma mostly the man are musicians, Romani female musicians are rare.
Egypt screenshot:
The third part is in Istanbul, Turkey, and, from here on, they are real Roma. A big problem in the presentation, in this part and also in the next ones, is that the author chose only Roma from poor castes. The documentary is made for Western public, and probably he thought that they expect to see confirmed their Gypsy imagery and prejudices. In this sense, the presentation is very unbalanced. There are also middle class Roma and also rich Roma, but their success stories infirm the Gypsy image. In the next releases I’ll try to have a more balanced view. The local non-Roma like to keep the Roma as exotic and strange, you may see how they build “reasons” to support the idea that they are right and we are wrong. See, for example, this rich Romani village in Romania, filmed by non-Roma passing by
Video Incredibil - Palatele tiganilor din...Buzescu ! They say very disdainful words, you may see also in the comments repeated references to Hitler and Antonescu (the local Hitler in the Second World War). Btw, for those Desi who have sympathies for the Nazis, be sure that they would like to make you soap too, as they did from Roma and Jews in the WW2. They don’t really like cultural differences, in this video is exactly the Desi architecture of the village that attracts their wrath. Plus the fact that they stole some symbols, like the swastik or the name Aryan.
Turkey (Istanbul) screenshot:
The next part is in Romania. First an old singer singing about the
Revolution from 1989. He is accompanied by a santoor, named here cimbalom (we introduced this musical instrument in Europe). Then a village band playing another song. As a note,
Roma and
Romanians (the majority of population in Romania) are different people, the latter are the descendants of the colonists from the Italian city of Rome, hence their name.
Romania screenshot:
Then in Hungary, a group traveling by train and another one waiting for them in a station. Here I didn’t like the deferent way they sang for that White kid and his mother, again the Gypsy exotic image.
Hungary screenshot:
The next part is in Slovakia. An old woman, survivor of the Holocaust (you may see the number tattooed on her arm, every detained had such number), sings about it (I added in the folder the original words and the translation). Then a group of Roma coming from Serbia, stranded in Slovakia, because they could not pass into Germany (at that time Slovakia was not part of European Union).
Slovakia screenshot:
Next in France. In Western Europe the local Romani population remained for a longer period nomad, they were not accepted to settle. Here you may see a group who is going to Kali Sara. Here statue is in a crypt in La Carmague, in Southern France, until recently only the Roma had access there. Her cult has similarities with the cult of Kali from the Subcontinent, you may see how in the annual pilgrimage she is taken out an immersed in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The group plays in Manush style. Manush is the main name of the Romani branch from France (in French spelling: Manouche). The modern Manush playing style was invented by
Django Reinhardt, a Sinti Romani from Belgium, then appropriated by the Europeans as European Jazz.
France screenshots:
The last part is in Spain, where they sing in the local Romani style, Flamenco.
Duration- 01:38:39
IMDb link