MovieChat Forums > Gadjo dilo (1998) Discussion > What did the ending mean to you? (Spoile...

What did the ending mean to you? (Spoilers)


For me it was simply that the French guy (Stephane) decided to quit being an outsider looking in at the Gypsy people and instead become one with them. The way he buried all his tapes and put the vodka bottle on the burial hole, was symbolic of putting to rest his role of being the outsider. I think after he saw the village get pounded by the locals, he truly felt the hatred towards the Gypsies, and he felt he could no longer be the outsider, but had to choose sides. I thought it was a good ending. Quick, but effective. (And his shoes were probably in good repair for the rest of his life.)

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OK, I am replying a long time after (just saw the movie via Netflix) so I don't know if you will ever see this... I think you are right. When he made those tapes, he was being outside the music and the scene. He told Sabina to be quiet and the musicians to start again when he recorded the group. Sabina was crying as the old woman sang, but he was smiling. In both these scenes you see how much he is outside the music, trying to capture something with his machine. That is not a bad thing, as we see when he is able to play Izidor's father's voice for him. He could give immortality to this wonderful music. He could bring it to people like his father, who loved the Nora Luca tape so much.
But to make the tapes, he has to be the person who comes to the Gypsies and keeps on saying "I am here for the music." That person is now dead.
I am not sure though where he is going. Is he going to go back to Paris with Sabina and make a new life? Or will he turn back and try to find a way to rebuild her village?

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I like to believe that he goes back to Sabina to make a new life among the Gypsies. I just can't see him wanting to go back to Paris, after everything he has seen and experienced.

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I think you're totally right. I found the ending quite poignant. I loved the look and smile on Sabina's face as she was watching him dance next to the "grave".
I think that every moment of that film is absolutely fascinating. Tony Gatlif has an uncanny way of portraying the gypsy/roma culture(s). Have you seen "Vengo"?


"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
Oscar Wilde

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