Everything Is Illuminated
(2005), directed and screenplayed by Liev Schreiber, promises to relieve my
post-Serenity bends a bit.
The plot is an increasingly popular one-- child of immigrants travels back to country of his ancestors to find discover some implacable truth about his past and hence himself. As an immigrant, who has returned to Romania as often as possible since 1989, my sentimental education predisposes me to appreciate such plot lines. IMBd breaks down the plot as follows:
A young Jewish American man (played by Elijah Wood) endeavors to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village, that was ultimately razed by the Nazis, with the help of a local who speaks weirdly funny broken English.
Schreiber cast Gogol Bordello front-man and contender for most-interesting-gentleman-alive Eugene Hutz in the role of Alex. If you've ever been to a Bordello show, or backpacked around eastern Europe via train, for that matter, then the "gypsy punk" appeal will ensnare you, accordions and all. Official Hutz bio follows:
Born in Kiev in 1972, Hutz's road to the United States was a long trek through Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Poland an immigrant experience that informs much of his band's material. When Hutz was 14 and living in Striy, a small Ukrainian village near the Hungarian border, he and his family packed their suitcases and fled the country.
Descendants of Gypsies called the Sirva Roma (a tribe known for its blacksmiths, pottery makers and musicians), they found themselves wandering throughout Poland, Hungary, Austria, and Italy moving from one refugee camp to the next.
A seasoned busker with a headful of ideas, Hutz arrived in Vermont in 1993 through a relocation program. Joining him were his mother, a Gypsy tap dancer/singer, and his father, a butcher by trade who also played guitar in one of the Ukraine's first rock bands.
In 1996 Hutz formed a band called 'Flying Fuck,' an early prototype for what would finally become 'Gogol Bordello,' a Gypsy-driven collective of multi-national punk music. After some time in Vermont, Hutz moved to Ne York and met what would become the eight-piece lineup of 'Gogol Bordello.'
Gogol Bordello refers to the 19th Century Ukrainian author Nikolai Gogol and the institution of the bordello with its connotations of erotic pleasure and street vulgarity.
In addition to starring in "Everything is Iluminated," Hutz will tour this summer with Gogol Bordello on the 2005 Vans Warped Tour and will release his third full-length album of rock mayhem "GYPSY PUNKS: Underdog World Strike" (Sideonedummy Records) on Aug. 9. Produced by Steve Albini (Nirvana, Jimmy Page/Robert Plant) "GYPSY PUNKS" is an expansive 15-track salvo that expands the band's cultural crusade to build a bridge between Gypsy sounds, rock'n'roll and other brands of rebel music.
So Hutz will bring an Americanized immigrant's perspective to Alex's character. More importantly, he will bring the experiences of a still-persecuted ethnic minority (i.e. the Roma) to bear on Alex's Jewish identity. As with all films pivoting around identity politics, and questions of ethnicity or lineage, the protagonists' conflicts will be shadowed on the faces of their parents. I look forward to the show.
Also, to note: the soundtrack is as close as you can get to Eastern Europe without losing your mind in airport security. Other objects of potential desire include:
- The trailer.
- Brent Hallenbeck talks to Eugene Hutz about the Ukraine, restlessness, Gogol Bordello, and misunderstanding the past.
- Erin Adler interviews Hutz for the Minnesota Daily.
- Laura Miller reviews the book for Salon.com.
- David Edelstein's review for NPR.
- Who Is Augustine?
- Read The Gypsies by Angus Fraser or The Traveller Gypsies by Judith Okely, available online thanks to Google.
- Recipe for the Flying Fuck, a drink that might entice fans of Jack Daniels.
- A bad review from Variety magazine.
