In 1993, Tony Gatliff would make a daring move within the bounds of documentary filmmaking: the docu-musical. Naturally, this hybrid genre calls for some deviations from the rules of documentaries, all in favour of colourful and picturesque vignettes, brimming with emotion through music and dance. “Latcho drom” (“safe journey” in Romani) retraces the historical itinerary of the Romani people, from its cradle-civilisation (India, Rajasthan), passing through Egypt and Turkey, then through the Balkans and finally reaching the lands of France and Spain. The Roma cross the desert, East-Euroopean villages, the Western plains and hills, meandering through different cultures and effortlessly switching from the most ecstatic dance to the most heart-wrenching dirge. The film is not without its dramatic moments during this wandering through places and times: one boy sings about his fate that sentenced him to permanent exile, an elderly Auschwitz survivour mourns and sings the woe of her people, while Hispanic women lament, in song, their homes in Barcelona’s historical buildings, permanently walled up and shut by the authorities. Each of these episodes is a musical number in its own rights, where love of life and tragedy entwine, emerging as the living proof of a nomadic culture, inscribed into history through stories and songs. (by Andreea Chiper)