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 »

Director:

Jan Dunn (uncredited)

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.

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Plot Keywords:

fear | f rated | czech in uk | czech abroad | dogme 95 | 

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Taglines:

There are three sides to every story

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Genres:

Drama | Family

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 October 2006 (UK)

Also Known As:

Cigó

Filming Locations:

Margate, Kent, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£300,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

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

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

First British feature to be registered as Dogme film.

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Crazy Credits

Santa is credited "as himself".

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Soundtracks

If I Could Conquer You
Music & Lyrics by Christiane Bjørg Nielsen (as Christiane Bjørg-Nielsen)
Arrangements by Flemming Borby
Performed by Labrador
Produced by Flemming Borby

User Reviews

If you've got some time to waste..

Gypo was a big disappointment. At the start of the film the screenplay was very unrealistic and I told my girlfriend about ten minutes in that if it didn't get better I would turn it off. I held out and when the story changed person it got a lot better.

Pauline McLynn outperformed the script, she is capable of far better things. However, despite her best efforts, she just couldn't convince that Paul McGann was her husband; they were a mismatch. The star of the show was Chloe Sirene, who pulled off the Czech accent so well that she had me convinced (it wasn't until I watched the DVD extras that I found out she was English).

All in all this is a poor film. I think the director was so obsessed with meeting the rules of the 'dogme' method that she was ignorant to the fact that people would actually have to watch it. Why make a film to comply with a set of rules when you should be making it to pleasure the viewer?