Transylvania (2006)

74% of critics liked it
(19 reviews)
78% of users liked it
(2,565 ratings)

An Italian woman intent on tracking down the Romany musician who impregnated her becomes lost in a world of Gypsies in director Tony Gatlif's meditative road drama. Convinced that her one-time lover Milan (Marco Castoldi) has been deported by French authorities and determined to let him know about… More An Italian woman intent on tracking down the Romany musician who impregnated her becomes lost in a world of Gypsies in director Tony Gatlif's meditative road drama. Convinced that her one-time lover Milan (Marco Castoldi) has been deported by French authorities and determined to let him know about his unborn child, Zingarina (Asia Argento), travels to Romania in the company of her motherly friend Marie (Amira Casar) in hopes of seeking out the elusive musician. Though Zingarina does eventually track Milan to a remote village festival, the rejection she is faced with soon drives the troubled mother-to-be to ditch her friend Marie during the trip back to France. Now wandering the Romanian countryside as her future grows ever more bleak, Zingarina enters into a tentative romance with itinerant trader Tchangalo (Birol Ünel), whose gruff exterior masks a sensual inner beauty. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 41 min.
Directed By: Tony Gatlif
Written By: Tony Gatlif
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: May 28, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Aug 14, 2007

Critic Reviews

Bernard Besserglik, Hollywood Reporter
A love story with star actors and a bigger budget heightens the mainstream appeal of Tony Gatlif's ethnic road musical.
Leslie Felperin, Variety
Seemingly semi-improvised dialogue is kept mostly to a minimum, which is just as well because some of it's awful.
Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile
The mood, the music and the melancholy remain true to Gatlif's signature, but there is a sense of incompleteness about the film which detracts from it.
Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile
Perhaps Tony Gatlif's oddest film to date, it's a kind of road trip with so few borders that it's easy to get lost along the way. The plot is as obtuse as its mix of languages
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
No vampires.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
A remarkably gutsy odyssey.
Derek Malcolm, This is London
The whole is lively and colourful but those who know Gatlif 's work may feel they've seen it all before. If you haven't, you may be more impressed.
Anthony Quinn, Independent
Gatlif seems literally to make it up as he goes along, a modus operandi that works fine in the impromptu musical interludes but fails utterly in terms of drama.
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
When not hyperkinetic, the film is stone-cold dull.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
Gatlif is thrilled by the apparently inexhaustible energy of Romany music; a little of it goes quite a long way. But it's beautifully shot.
Wendy Ide, Times [UK]
The real love affair is not between Zingarina and Tchangalo; it's between Zingarina and the country where she has her child.
Jon Fortgang, Film4
Raw, ragged, rambling and romantic - if the sound of a furious violin drifting down the alley quickens your pulse, you may find Gatlif's gypsy drama a seductive and potent experience.
Laura Bushell, BBC
Gatlif's vision of life on the open road is highly (sometimes overly) romantic, peppered with lively music and striking landscapes: it's the feeding of the senses that takes priority over plotting or polish in Transylvania.
David Jenkins, Total Film
French- Algerian director Tony Gatlif shows great skill in capturing local colour and texture, sourcing a rogues' gallery of memorable images from the fog-shrouded environs. He's less successful at giving any direction or meaning to his central pairing's
Jonathon Williams, Little White Lies
Confused passion and twisted emotions make for a captivating ride.
Kat Brown, Empire Magazine
Forget the plot and soak up the glorious cinematography.
Trevor Johnston, Time Out
An insidiously memorable visual experience, even if it offers only dazzling snapshots of contemporary life in the region which gives it its title.
Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film
The landscape plays a major role... with its bleak, open spaces, adding to the feeling that the characters and their emotions are curiously incidental.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

vieras e

Dancing, singing and music are a huge part of this film. Almost everybody either sings or dances in this film, and yet this is not a musical. And even though this isn't exactly a happy, cheery film, largely thanks to the music it is still very vibrant and full of life...no matter… More
Dancing, singing and music are a huge part of this film. Almost everybody either sings or dances in this film, and yet this is not a musical. And even though this isn't exactly a happy, cheery film, largely thanks to the music it is still very vibrant and full of life...no matter how gritty that life may be. Some say this film is supposed to be about gypsy persecution (there are a few scenes that hint at that) but, to me, it's more like a weird kind of road movie. Some also complain about it not being realistic, but as far as I know, the director never claimed it to be. In fact it is the exact opposite. In my opinion, it is about Zingarina's escape from reality in order to rediscover herself. Think Alice in Wonderland or the Wizard of Oz, only for adults.
Christopher M

The only reason I sought out this film was due to it starring Birol Ünel, who I fell completely in love with in 2004's Head-On. And while that fact remains Transylvania's most redeeming factor for me, I'm still glad to have seen it as its a pretty good film on its own.… More
The only reason I sought out this film was due to it starring Birol Ünel, who I fell completely in love with in 2004's Head-On. And while that fact remains Transylvania's most redeeming factor for me, I'm still glad to have seen it as its a pretty good film on its own. The central character of the film is Zingarina (played by Asia Argento, daughter of legendary horror director Dario Argento), a French woman who travels to Transylvania to track down Milan, her boyfriend who she thought had been deported suddenly. I've never seen Asia in a role of any real substance before, so this was a pleasant surprise, as she does an excellent job. She plays the woman driven to the brink by love as being racked with a controlled chaos, which is well conveyed in the tragic defiance that seems to emit naturally from her beautiful face. I'm pretty sure I could watch Birol Ünel just standing in a field smoking a cigarette for two hours and I'd love it, but he's also good here. Unfortunately, the film loses any sense of focus from about half-way through. While this is somewhat appropriate due to the fact that the two main characters clearly don't follow any set life path, it is still the film's chief flaw. However, this is somewhat redeemed by the fact that, despite this, the film continues to breed some great moments and remains brimming with beautiful imagery. The whole thing is also continually shrouded in mysticism and Transylvanian Gypsy culture and that makes it always an interesting watch, at the very least. Despite its flaws, this is a film worth checking out.
nefnie l

A movie called Transylvania that is not about vampires! What it is, is a poignant film about a pregnant woman, magnificently portrayed by Asia Argento, who travels to Romania with a friend to find her lover, who left her in France. Once brutally rejected, she escapes her friend… More
A movie called Transylvania that is not about vampires! What it is, is a poignant film about a pregnant woman, magnificently portrayed by Asia Argento, who travels to Romania with a friend to find her lover, who left her in France. Once brutally rejected, she escapes her friend and embraces a gypsy lifestyle until meeting up with another lost soul. A powerful, raw, emotional journey of a woman letting go to find the happiness she seeks.