Mondo - Part 3 of 8

The title character in this film, Mondo, is a Gypsy boy of eleven or twelve who lives in the streets of Nice, in southern France. As he wanders around flashing a winning smile and asking strangers if they would like to adopt him, we meet other people of the streets and see how they live from day to day.

This film does not have the tragic power of Pixote or Salaam Bombay but don't let its lyrical pace and occasionally overt sentimentality fool you. It's not all gloom and doom in the streets - anyone who has worked with street children will agree that there are many who have the same charm and vivacity as Mondo, children whose absolute poverty seems not to have destroyed their innocence but to have intensified it.

Yet like Pixote and Salaam Bombay this film is also a tragedy though not so much a tragedy for Mondo as for the society in which he lives. It shows how even in the most developed countries we have not developed adequate institutional means of caring for children such as Mondo and so we lose them, and the loss is ours, not theirs.

Mondo is one of a trilogy of films of Gypsy life directed by Tony Gatlif. Ovidiu Balan, who plays Mondo in this film, also appears briefly in another film in the trilogy, aged about 15.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• street
• childen
• child
• boy
• Mondo
• Tony
• Gatlif
• Nice
• France
• Gypsy

[simplymild]

My Gosh! This boy's smile is the smile of an angel!!! So soft and sensible!!!

[XxEduardo19943xX]

por fa pongan la parte 4 de esta pelicula asi no tiene sentido

[HarryMMartin1]

can any1 tell me where i can watch the whole movie??

[jaboy567]

part 4 ????

[falloist]

@simplymild because i find a little bit retarded what you say....whatever forget it

[simplymild]

@falloist yes, I'm pretty good. Why is that? Why did you ask me that, mate?

[falloist]

i ve read the fucking book for the sorbonne c1 exams and it SUCKS

[falloist]

@simplymild are you ok?

[8888Eastman]

great film thank you

[lilnelva95]

his smile just tears me apart hes so cute with a gorgeous smile! wats his real name?

[Wjanut]

We can't say he's Rrom: this is only one possible interpretation, but he could be North African or Italian. It's not because many of Gatlif's movies are about Rroma that he only talks about them.

[bapho666met]

@XxEduardo19943xX