Vozar

Vozar is a storyteller and TV mechanic in a small gypsy village, built from boards and corrugated iron, in Slovakia. When he walks through the hamlet, a long string of children follows in his wake. In Western society, he would be called the village idiot, but the villagers love the old, almost toothless man for his inexhaustible supply of anecdotes and myths, in which ghosts play a leading role. For example, he likes to tell how he met his sweetheart Voziana, who is now in a state of diminished responsibility, and how she seduced him. But when he instals an old TV set in house of his relatives, he loses their undivided attention. Fortunately, he is the only one who knows anything about electricity; if he wants people to listen to him, he simply disconnects the whole lot. The documentary is more than a portrait of the tough Vozar; it is also an attractive sketch of a large gypsy family, in which mothers laconically breastfeed two toddlers at a time, the dishes are done in the living room - while watching a soap series - and a campfire replaces electric light. The solidarity of the family is beautifully captured in the light of the crackling fire, which is the ideal backdrop for one of Vozar’s spine-chillers.