The red garden

A film based on Veijo Baltzar’s poems about the disappearing culture of the gypsies. It speaks of a time long ago when bells jingled as the gypsies dashed by in their horse-drawn sleights and carriages. It speaks of the wisdom and sorrow of the old fortune-teller, the prejudices of the majority against the dark-ones. It speaks of the child born in a buckboard on a winter night who heard his dark mother’s song, grew from a boy into a man, a vagabond. It speaks of the unending journey in the wind and cold, summer and winter. It speaks of a love of nature; the land, the water, the air, the wind and the fire. It speaks of old gypsy traditions and beliefs, from the magpie’s laugh to the sherrif’s arrival. It speaks of love and hate, the irreconcilable feud between two families which only revenge through bloodshed and death can end.