Gypo (2005)

It charts the breakdown of a working class family when the teenage daughter befriends a refugee girl. Helen has been married to Paul for 25 years. They live a monotonous and frozen ... See full summary »

Writer:

Jan Dunn

Stars:

Pauline McLynn, Chloe Sirene, Paul McGann

4 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Pauline McLynn	...	Helen
Chloe Sirene	...	Tasha
Paul McGann	...	Paul
Rula Lenska	...	Irina
Tamzin Dunstone	...	Kelly
Barry Latchford	...	Jimmy
Freddie Connor	...	Tasha's Husband
Tom Stuart	...	Darren
Olegar Fedoro	...	Tasha's Father
Sean Wilton	...	Art Tutor
Angelica O'Reilly	...	Prostitute
Rebecca Clow	...	Terminal Hostess
Majid Iqbal	...	Illegal Worker
Ashley McGuire	...	Penny
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Josef Altin	...	Michael

Storyline

It charts the breakdown of a working class family when the teenage daughter befriends a refugee girl. Helen has been married to Paul for 25 years. They live a monotonous and frozen existence. Helen is desperate, damaged, and looking for change. Paul - bitter, hypocritical and bigoted, sick and tired of being in the poverty trap - is on the brink of a breakdown. His biggest fear is change. Into their lives comes Tasha, a Romany Czech refugee, awaiting her British passport and her chance for freedom - a concept taken for granted by all those around her. Told in three revelatory narratives, each from a particular character's point of view, reveals how the disintegration of an ordinary working class family finally comes to a head when unexpected emotions are unleashed.

---

Plot Keywords:

fear | ethnic hatred | lesbian | struggle | passion | 

---

Taglines:

There are three sides to every story

---

Genres:

Drama | Family

---

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 October 2006 (UK)

Also Known As:

Cigó

Filming Locations:

Ramsgate, Kent, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£300,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Medb Films, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Distant Eye Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

There was no script - all the dialogue in the film was improvised. The only guides were basic Contrary to some press, there was an entirely structured screenplay, with dialogue written in a prose format style under the writer/director who wanted to achieve spontaneous dialogue in the rehearsal process.

---

Crazy Credits

Santa is credited "as himself".

User Reviews

Unexpected plot development, but Czech refugees???? inauthentic

Being a Czech myself, I feel kind of about this movie. On the one hand, it is very didactic, simple, sometimes pathetic, but at the same time: Be it so. It is necessary and it does the so-called "job":

1.look-at-yourselves-you-sometimes-dumb-and- blind-Brits-it's-never-black-and-white,

2.look-at-yourselves-you-damned-Czechs- you're-not-able-to-protect-your-citizens, and the Roma situation in your country is really BAD

3.or: cultural diversity is good, everyone has something to contribute with,

4.or: not everyone is a money-thirsty economical immigrant.

On the other hand, the family background and relations of these "Czech" refugees and their portrayal was something I had to cringe at. Truth is that I was wondering about Sirene's (Tasha's) accent all way long...and, with a great uncertainty, I concluded she must have been Slovak. (I didn't know she was English, so in a way her accent was persuasive, although it def. wasn't Czech) I assumed that her mother (Irina/Rula Lenska) must be Russian or Polish because these couple of words she uttered definitely weren't Czech, rather this Slavic universal mixture. The only Czech sentence she says is "miluju te" which means i love you, which is commonly used in English, but rarely amnong parents and children, rather for lovers. Another thing - Romanies tend to speak Romani language among each other, especially the older generation.

However, these are minor details I can overlook. But what the hell was this bunch of guys, both Sub-Carpatian Ukrainian and mafioso like looking, that came after them??? I can't think of a single place in the Czech Republic where gypsies would look anything like it, not mentioning the fact that after 40 yrs of communism there's zero left of their traditional life. I mean Romanies of course have their communities, but a vast majority of them dress like other Czechs. In Gypo even the caravans (altho for refugees) were there to suggest this traditional nomadic life. The way Tasha's mother dressed and decorated herself is rarely seen among the Czech gypsies.

If these refugees were from Slovakia or Romania, I would find it more credible.