Customer Reviews
Three sides of a story... - By: Acquafortis, 03 Oct 2007 
It's strange how many sides to a story there can be. How many realities & emotions there can be to the same single fact.
This film made me think of how nothing we know of other people's life even if we thoroughly think we know the person.
A slow paced film based I think in Dover or a village nearby. The harsh reality of misunderstandings between wife & husband, mother & daughter, locals & refugees.
Have patience but it is worth watching.
Decent film, but perhaps a little too worthy - By: Jaybird, 06 Jun 2007 Gypo is the story of a working class family in Margate, Kent, a town where immigrants have become the focus of most of the public's discontent.
The film tells the story of the a couple of weeks in this family's life, beginning when a young Czech girl, Tash, comes to visit.
The film is made in the Dogme95 tradition, so no costumes, no lighting, no props or sets, which gives the film a gritty texture appropriate to the story.
The same story is told from the point of view of each of the three protagonists, Helen, her husband Paul, & Tash. The format has something to say about the selectiveness of memory, & how the same events can be experienced differently by different people. Certainly it does that with subtlety & sensitivity.
However, the downside of this form of story-telling is that you inevitably have a lot of repetition. This slows the film somewhat, & makes the edning visible from a long way off. Unfortunately, what it also does is make explicit the sensitive pieces of acting, so things you picked up & realised early on & spelled out in capital letters, & on one occasion with Paul with unnecessarily overt imagery.
Paul McGann puts in a great performance but for the other characters the improvised feel to the film works more unevenly - there are moments of real insight & others that jar you back.
I would give this film 3.5 stars if I could - it is worth a watch, because it has interesting things to say, but it also has its flaws.
