Romany Romance. Russian Gypsies’ child marriage tradition | RT Documentary

[Music] there will be no kiss for the bride at this wedding nor will the couple dance after the ceremony in fact the newlyweds won't get anywhere near each other at all to an outsider it's hard to tell which of these men is the groom but the unlikely new husband is standing a little apart from the rest [Music] i'm 12 my wife is 15. there are never kisses at weddings it is against the law we will start talking to each other in a month or so marriage is the main objective in life for a calderash but none of them are free to choose their own partners children have no say in who they marry it's the parents who arrange the weddings more often than not a young couple will be married just three days after they're introduced twelve-year-old yasha has been a husband for a year now his parents paid 200 000 rubles that's almost seven thousand dollars as a dowry for the future lady of their house can you love her she's got such green eyes she's beautiful and smart and she knows how to make tea she's hard working that's great why else would i marry her working is good all the dishes should be done and everything must be in order at home when they found a husband for me i didn't like him but it made no difference because they had already made their choice these are our customs you learn to like him later three families live in this house yash's parents yasha and his elder brother together with their wives yash's brother is 15 and he already has a child everyone helps to babysit whoever is free becomes the nanny daughters-in-law always do the cooking and cleaning as soon as a girl is married she takes on all the housework but the mother-in-law doesn't believe that modern young ladies know how to keep a house in order properly come on come on why do i have to ask all day to get the dishes washed [Music] before her marriage yash's wife cassandra had a dream an unusual one for a modern romany girl i wanted to become a nurse but there's no way romany girls can do that girls here must live by many strict rules they cannot refuse to work hair cannot be brushed after lunch and they're not allowed to cross the path of a man even their skirts mustn't touch a man there are no studies and no dreams for a calderash girl men have a different fate they have to study but not for long five years at most they only need to know how to read and write in russian and above all how to count what have they been teaching my child for five years he's in fifth grade now but he doesn't know anything he cannot read at all and he can only do just a little bit of math i don't know what they have been teaching him mothers play little part in their children's education but all of the women help to look after the camp's children the biggest danger is posed by roads russians always read bedtime stories to put their children to sleep i simply rock my baby sing a lullaby to him and that's it i never read to him i don't need books because i can't read all of the camp's men are builders without exception they specialize in building summer houses and saunas sunday is always their busiest day as they all make their way to nearby villages in search of work and unlike women romani men are allowed to dream i want to have a the camp where yasha lives was set up no more than two years ago the community here is not particularly wealthy all the money earned by the men goes towards home renovation it's rare to spend a lot of money on children they have few toys and play with whatever they can find computers are almost unheard of yasha first saw a laptop when he visited a neighboring camp it's all very easy first you have to flip it open and then you have to switch it on and wait for it to load maxim is considered the local genius he knows all the football clubs and their players by heart he's been watching football since he was five six actually oh for example who's 15 for spain sergio ramos and portugal number 10. there's there's no number 10 in portugal's team no no what about number seven for portugal seven in portugal yeah everyone knows that cristiano ronaldo and do you know germany's goalkeeper manuel neuer i'll be a builder when i grow up not a football player romany men can't become football players we all become builders [Music] there is a stereotype of how the romania are supposed to look it includes a colorful shirt and a skirt and a bright colored neckerchief however the romani in england looked like this because they mainly wore what people gave them [Music] several years ago nikolai basanov and valeria yanashiva launched a unique cultural project called svenka meaning festival they're trying to recreate everyday romani life from far away and long ago nicolai and valeria attempt to reconstruct every tiny detail there was a picture of an english romany woman wearing a slightly torn apron and nikolai copied all the details from the picture therefore it is very authentic but the two believe their most important goal is to gather a record of the details of today's romani culture according to historians romani folklore tends to fade two generations after moving to a new campsite they adopt local music and singing traditions and their clothes also change valeria is a professional singer and dancer she sews traditional costumes herself selects the accessories and even uses oil paint as makeup romany women used to spend all their time working in the open and so their skin tone was one that can't be replicated with conventional cosmetics one of the important details is bare feet a 1956 soviet decree on gypsy vagrants and labor was adopted by the council of ministers this meant that the romani needed to start wearing shoes when performing and dancing at the theater but those living in the encampments still walked around in bare feet now the historians are filming svetlana performing a romani dance she's married to a romany man and has lived in a camp for 10 years now [Music] me [Music] romani culture is fading away and we have to document all the music the clothes and the dance moves while we still have the time 200 years from now people will be grateful that we did we cannot forget the romani world and this is how the russian romani used to dance back in the good old days [Music] [Applause] [Music] like the traditional dance of a russian romani she does not hold on to her skirt that's a stereotype that appeared later borrowed from tv a typical dance looked like that it's just her legs that move in the past dance competitions were held the one who danced the longest and did not repeat themselves was the winner a romani woman could make 40 different movements in a row now very few can do that it's the same with folk songs they are gradually being forgotten and the repertoire now contains only songs from tv the ethnic culture is disappearing and we can feel it in our bones nikolai and valeria are ready for a new venture they want to travel from one calderash romani camp to another yasha and cassandra are very rarely seen together today's an exception they've been sent to the city market alexandrov is one of the so-called golden ring cities of russia it's 130 kilometers from moscow boasting a kremlin of its own and a rich history in the 16th century under tsar ivan the terrible a marriage market took place here thousands of beautiful girls flocked to alexandrov so that the tsar could hand pick a wife from the crowd the nearby villages were founded hundreds of years ago as well this romani camp settled down near one of them hello uncle sasha a narrow rural road separates these two dramatically different worlds the calderash romani tends to keep to themselves they live close to society yet still remain separate the only ones out of 18 romani communities in russia romani are just romani we don't care about them they don't care about us our children don't make friends with them and to be honest we don't have many children here mostly old people why would i be friends with them my parents even tell me not to [Music] is no who's new you borrowed it so let's go for a ride let's go all right the boys once tried playing football together but it didn't go very well we don't play against the romani boys much there's no fun in playing them because every time they play dirty and they always kick us in the shins we do not allow them to get too close to russians they may tempt them into going to nightclubs for example and we definitely do not want that we do not allow any of that sort of thing nikolai basanov and valeria yanashiva will come here to the village of tatyana [Music] where there'll be plenty of work waiting for them because here they'll find a slice of traditional romani culture still intact [Music] who arrived in russia from romania in the 1870s these are people who strictly observe the traditions that others have long since forgotten the calderash boast a very interesting musical culture they use one melody for a very long song which they can sing for two hours on end today only a few old people can still sing them just one more song because no one remembers anything anymore thank god i found someone musicians come to the encampment together with valeria and nikolai to help liven things up and inspire the residents the two historians hope they'll finally see a real calderish dance but they're out of luck [Music] little bit staring at the floor a calderash woman ought to show that she is a submissive wife this old-fashioned manner has almost been forgotten now the calderash are now adopting russian romani folklore many now dance like russian romani do on tv thank you all god bless you do you not think the romani themselves see that things are changing the older generation of women had traditional braids younger women have more modern hair styles skirts have changed they used to be multi-colored well now they are plain headscarves used to be twisted like this well now they wear regular scarves but there is one tradition that seemed unshakable marrying off children at an early age boys marry as early as 10 years old and a future husband plays no part in choosing his wife it's his parents who pick one out for him and pay for the bride with gold coins that were used back in the 18th and 19th centuries these coins can still be bought today previously the groom was supposed to bring enough dresses to last the bride for 10 years now it's more common simply to present her with bolts of cloth after all even gypsy dresses go out of fashion teresa is preparing for her son's wedding she's already bought a lot of fabric but has yet to find a bride i don't know yet which bride i'm going to choose now he's still undecided there's a beautiful girl at a neighboring encampment she's tall fair and beautiful is your wife beautiful yes that's important too she will most likely make a good housewife another important factor is that she comes from a good family isn't that right they often have to travel great distances to find a bride and what if somebody else marries this girl it is better to marry her now before someone else chooses her they are not going to live together as husband and wife now as they are too young they will be living together as brother and sister the girl will get used to her in-laws and it will be very unlikely that they will have any family conflicts this is overwhelmingly due to the fact that spouses get to know each other from a very young age and the young man once he is married becomes more responsible when he reaches 18 he will be a man with his feet firmly on the ground i also wanted to ask you do you go to school together with russian kids yes we play football together as well but for some reason they don't want to play with this anymore one of their players said his leg hurts the other has a headache the calderash had been playing football for ages since they were nomads then they used to come to villages and play football with russians russian romani don't play football unlike the calderash who are very keen on it the russians are afraid to play with us really is your team that good no but we will break their legs the arrival of the researchers has become the talk of the camp and set off an unexpected series of events the boys have been set free to play in a friendly local match but with caution their parents are worried that the romani kids might play dirty and get beaten up for it it was hard to persuade enough children to get up early to play in the game let's go they've decided to strengthen the romani team by including players from the football club their opponents are wearing green shirts once the game begins it's clear that the romani team hasn't a hope of winning [Music] defenders are not supposed to attack you must stay over here stay here chill out and stop swearing and don't swear why don't you catch the ball i can be goalkeeper i can be goalkeeper guys the goalkeeper's doing fine leaving b nine nil nine three each of you should be playing in your specific areas right back stay on the right but you're running left if you want to learn we have paid lessons that are a thousand rubles a month after getting a real taste of football the boys share their memories back at the romani camp yasha even tells his wife that he's going to talk to his father about playing football at the club but he needs money for it well i don't think his father will let him do that yasha can't find the right moment to talk to his father everyone in the camp is busy preparing for a housewarming party one family is celebrating their son starting his new life in a new home no one in the camp knows exactly when the celebration is going to take place until the very last moment it doesn't matter if it's just a housewarming party or a wedding the timing is often not announced until the day itself only then are the people from neighboring camps invited to join the festivities [Music] in the old times the calderash went to the market to tell fortunes but the romani from this camp don't do that anymore they've forgotten how despite her name cassandra has no plans to become a clairvoyant she doesn't see the point nowadays the romani head to the market just to buy groceries interestingly the men help out with this task which is usually considered a woman's job [Music] however during a celebration everyone in the camp must know their place women do not sit at the same table as men they dance with energy and gusto [Music] maria misses the old traditions the arrival of the romani historians has inspired her she really feels like dancing to an accordion and drinking tea from a samava so she decides to gather the young people together and celebrate the holiday according to the old traditions [Music] but the sad truth is that the samovar has already been sold and they've had to call in a russian musician because no one remembers how to play the accordion [Music] the celebration wasn't a huge success the boys started playing football while the girls ran off to pick berries [Music] still hasn't mustered up the courage to talk to his father about becoming a professional footballer that's just still a distant dream tomorrow he'll go to the construction site with his father to paint fences to earn money for something much more realistic like a car valeria and nikolai will continue hunting for precious examples of fading romani culture [Music] you

Channel: RT Documentary

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Keywords: RT Documentary, Documentary Channel, RTD Documentary Channel, Documentary film, RTDoc, Full Free Documentary, Full Documentary, Free Documentary, child marriage, Romany Romance, child marriage tradition, Russian Gypsies, Gypsy, Kalderash Gypsy, Gypsy traditions, gypsy culture, gypsy rules, Gypsy Brides, traditional gypsy wedding, marriage market, bride market

Id: 1H8r1cdnv0Y

Length: 25min 21sec (1521 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 21 2020