I particular loved the fact that the one man in Kiev was completely turned off by Eugene's gypsy rap, yet his hero, Sasha Kolpakov, later validated it! Two sides of a coin! One man thought he was destroying Gypsy music, yet probably one of the truest Gypsy musicians complimented it! Really tickled me! Love Gogol and Eugene!

The film is not great, I give it four stars because Mr. Hutz is, in my opinion, a good musician and its fun to watch him play music. I think he tries too hard, the film portrays him with a nearly manic need to be a part of something yet also be outside of it. I think the filmmaker's crush is a device, a way to try to connect with the audience and say "by the end of this movie you will love him, but you can't have him either." However, I think she mishandles her portrayal of him, and the device fails. He does not come off as likeable or loveable, he is illustrated rather clearly as a rock star, easy to idolize, but not easy to like.The film has some really genuine moments, the gypsy camp being most affecting. I got the feeling that it slowed down after that for a few reasons. First, because the film maker did not want to get bogged down making a documentary about poverty; and second because she got tired of being around him. Her narration gives the impression that she finds herself infatuated but not enjoying her time with Mr. Hutz, which sets a tone for the film, which makes it a lot less enjoyable. Watching someone through the eye of someone who isn't interested in being there doesn't feel good, actually quite the opposite.Again these are just my opinoins, I may be wrong.

The one minute with Zita had more genuine soul and emotion than the rest of the film. Two talented, yet phony and self-absorbed people got together and tried to see if they could eclipse an ancient and gorgeous musical culture with their own egos. Mission accomplished. Sorry.

The guy- eugene hurtz- his music sucks. It's tacky. His look is tacky. His style is tacky. And his explanation of "coming from a punk rock background, but from a different angle" is just a big load of crap. He's actually got a nice feel for music: too bad he's so caught up in himself. He's trying too hard to sell you. It's like he's trying to brand something that you just can't sell in a surface way (The mustache and gold-in-your-fabric thing? Nobody's gonna buy the way he's advertising). Gypsy music is phenomenal. Why cheapen it?(The film, by the way, was fairly awful. Ok: it sucked. This girl really needs to separate her personal life from her life's passions, if she has any.)