The Pied Piper of Hützovina

(Arts Alliance America)

Women have done some crazy-ass shit for love, but few have ever made a documentary about the object of their unrequited affections. In 2004, filmmaker Pavla Fleischer met Gogol Bordello frontman Eugene Hütz during a drunken night in Prague. The result of that brief encounter is this foray into the life of a Ukrainian immigrant in search of his gypsy roots, traipsing across the Carpathian Mountains with a guitar strapped to his back and a love-struck girl with a camera filming his every move. The attraction here isn’t Hütz’s toxic musician’s charm nor Fleischer’s embarrassing narration but rather gypsy girl Zita, whose lovely face clouds over in pain, the language barrier preventing her from communicating why exactly she’s so heartbroken so young. That touches on the real story of The Pied Piper, the plight of Eastern Europe’s gypsies, preserved in the traditional music Hütz punks up with Gogol Bordello.

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This article appears in December 26 • 2008.

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