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Excellent music documentary about larger than life personality
I just saw this film at a gypsy film festival here in London. By the end of it I found myself weeping without even knowing why. Normally, I am made of stone but something about this grotesque woman's voice got right under my skin. She's as real as it gets. Almost spherical in shape, cussing and chain-smoking, with an attitude and a voice that Bessie Smith might have been proud of, Vera Bila is a mighty musical force to be reckoned with. The reality of her life, however, as revealed in this excellent documentary, is one of hardship and heartbreak. This is a blues film, about a blues life, and the people featured have blues attitudes - stoical, wry, gallows humour that expects the worst and is rarely disappointed. Tough and truthful, honest and touching, in places depicting humanity at the very bottom of the economic scrap heap of Eastern Europe, this film is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the vitality of the music made by people with nothing to lose but the Romany blues. See it if you can find it. It's very special.
helpful•10
- adamblake77
- Jan 15, 2006
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- Black and White in Colour
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- Runtime58 minutes
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