Latcho Drom: Part 2

The second part of the movie Latcho Drom depicts the migration of the Roma people from the Middle East to Eastern Europe. In this part, there were two major musical scenes: 1) villagers coming out of their houses in Romania, and 2) nomads singing next to a railroad in Slovakia.

The first scene shows a group of Romanian villagers happily making music outside their homes. I noticed five different instruments: four violins, one flute, one acordion, two santours, and two other large chordophones. In this scene, everyone is gathered around the musicians enjoying themselves. One thing I found interesting about this scene is that only men play instruments while women just acompany them with their singing and clapping; perhaps this is a subtle suggestion of a patriarchal hierarchy. In the train scence that takes place in Slovakia, nomads play, sing, and entertain a child and his mother. Here, I only saw three instruments: a violin, a metal jar that is used as an idiophone, and two spoons beat together that are also used as idiophones.

From the descriptions above, it is clear that the Romanian scene has many conventional instruments (including chordophones and aerophones). The scene from Slovakia also shows a chordophone (the violin), but does not include any aerophones. The most interesting instruments from this scene are the idiophones because they are not conventional. The nomads use daily utensils (spoons and a jar) as their musical instruments.

Latcho Drom is undoubtedly a very interesting film. At the begining I didn't think I would be able to follow the movie because the English translation is minimal and no dialogue takes place. However, I later realized that in this movie the music is what truly matters. Parts of the songs are translated and the translation provides enough information for the viewer to understand what's taking place. The purpose of the film is not only to describe the migration of the nomads and how the music-cultures of the different regions they traversed influenced their own music-culture, but also to show the suffering and hardships faced by this group of people. This becomes especially evident in this second part of the film. For instance, in one scene, there's a girl and a woman singing a mournful song in a train. Their song says, "Everyone hates us, we're chased, we're cursed." In another scene, a man sings, "God has condemned us to wandering." Hearing these songs is depressing, but they illustrate nomad reality. "Gypsies" are at the bottom of the social ladder and experience rejection from the rest of society. Latcho Drom also depicts the miserable living conditions of the nomads. They constantly move from place to place and are forced to live under detrimental conditions. For example, there's a scene that shows how the nomads were living on trees during a cold winter in Slovakia. It is amazing how these people survive.