THE PIED PIPER OF HÜTZOVINA

If the director has a mad unrequited crush on her subject, perhaps she should take a break from stalking... I mean filming.

Sometimes, for better or worse, a documentary filmmaker's personality becomes as big a character in his or her films as the subjects of their lens, like the highly personalized films of Ross McElwee, or, of course, Michael Moore. In The Pied Piper of Hützovina, director Pavla Fleischer takes it a step further and, dare I say, seems to be using her film to stalk her subject, gypsy punk rock star Eugene Hutz of the band Gogol Bordello. As we are shown in a flashback to a year or so earlier, they shared a drunken road trip in the back of a car, and as a result, she became romantically obsessed with him. She proposes that she film a documentary of him, using as the catalyst of paying for his dream of returning to his gypsy roots to seek out some of the best gypsy musicians in the old world of Eastern Europe and Russia.

Now, Ukraine-born New Yorker Eugene Hutz is truly an interesting and charismatic character. Anyone who has seen the fabulous film Everything is Illuminated saw the birth of a scene-stealing character actor who was the comic energy of the film, but who also had surprising soul. In his regular life, Hutz is the wild-man bandleader of the cross-cultural melting pot band Gogol Bordello, whose reinvention of traditional gypsy music with a punk and hip hop edge is introducing a whole new audience to the traditional music.

But if you knew none of that going into this film, the director isn't here to teach you.

In fact, it is pointed out by Hutz himself that director Fleischer hasn't done her homework on her subject. Doesn't she know where he is from? His family life? His roots? His favorite singers? She complains that she doesn't know because he didn't tell her himself. Hm. And she also makes it very clear that she is pissed that he has brought his own lady friend with him on this multi-country musical quest, which leaves the Fleischer obviously smouldering with jealousy. It is a little creepy, and I'd say inappropriate for a documentary.

Luckily, where the film takes off is when we don't have to hear about Fleischer's ruminations, and instead get to see Hutz bonding and playing music with gypsy locals in Carpathia and Kiev in Ukraine, and Chita, Siberia. He also gets to meet some musical idols, and in turn gets both praise and criticism for his modern take on the classic gypsy tunes. It isn't until the very end of the film that we finally get to see a snippet of Hutz performing with his band, leading a bouncing, sweat-covered young audience with his gypsy-punk stylings.

The DVD extras fortunately include a bunch more musical scenes that were not included in the film, including Eugene playing his guitar on empty urban streets in the middle of the night. But for the "making of" featurette, we also get to hear more stalker ruminations, as Fleischer adds more evidence that Hutz was actually quite annoyed with her during much of the filming. Really? I wonder why?