In 1943, during the German occupation, the famous guitarist Django Reinhardt made all of Paris swing while his own people, the Roma, were hunted and killed.
When the German authorities asked him to perform concerts in Berlin, he refused to go there to play. Instead, he decided to leave Pigalle to reach Switzerland with his wife and mother… helped by his mistress.
Sidestepping the conventional form of a biopic, Etienne Comar’s beautiful film focuses on this episode in the life of this stunning musician, the prince of Parisian nights, portrayed with intensity by Reda Kateb, perfect in gravity and musicality, and Cécile de France, dignified and sensitive as a loving resistance fighter.
The filmmaker creates a breathless saga and pays tribute in passing to the Roma persecuted by the Nazis throughout Europe.
In front of his camera, we discover a Django who thinks about his art even while on the run, continuously perfecting his playing and delivering a unique piece in his work: a Requiem for My Roma Brothers, for organ, orchestra, and choirs, a score now lost.
