‘A story about the first Roma on Staten Island. Great historical relevance in which American Roma are speaking in their own voice.’

Mihai Catalin Cazacu

Synopsis

The protagonist of the 2009 documentary Searching for the 4th Nail (2009), George Eli, is also its director, as he joins his sons Alexander and Christopher in searching for their Romani identity and their roots in American history. Searching for the 4th Nail reveals the diversity of Romani communities and successfully shows modern-day Romani life in America. George’s trip starts with a visit to his parents’ grave, where he offers them some coffee and pastries, in accordance with traditional Romani customs. At the beginning of their quest, George and his sons are puzzled because they all have some issues surrounding what it means to be Roma or ‘Gypsy’. George, for his part, has no more than the mythical story about the fourth nail of Jesus, which was stolen by the ‘Gypsies’. As schoolboys, Alexander and Christopher want to be like their peers, and have little more than a stereotyped understanding of ‘Gypsies’ which they cannot identify with.

Throughout the progression of their quest, the viewer is allowed to follow their journey closely and concentrate on their emotions. The authentic voice is ensured by the intimate closeness, and it helps the viewer to understand the Romani culture from inside, through the lens of the Roma protagonist. The aforementioned authenticity is strengthened by the subjective yet simple author-driven narration. They are continually led back to popular culture, Hollywood movies, story books and mainstream media through their encounters with elements of stereotyping. In order to get some insight into the history of Romani people with the help of science and other cultural fields, they visit institutions (e.g. Ellis Island Immigration Museum and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), conferences, festivals and symposiums. They also talk with survivors, activists and museum curators, scholars in Romani studies, film experts, religious pastors and even with a traditional Roma fortune teller. George uses both human memory and the World Wide Web as he maps his family history with the help of his grandfather and home video footage. He even asks people on the streets about the overall picture of Romani people and the reasons why they are stereotyped.

Although at some points he feels despair about the topic, for instance at the Romano Drom Symposium and Festival in 2004 organised by the University of Toronto, where no Romani people were present in the audience, he eventually gains some support. This includes Hillary Clinton’s speech about Roma human rights and a letter written to George by Johnny Depp.

It is clear that making this highly informative and fresh film was an educational process not only for George, but also for his sons, as well as for the audience. Driving home at the end of the film, he concludes with his sons that someone has to learn about their roots to be a greater person. It certainly has a positive impact on the self-esteem of Roma, and helps the majority to break with stereotypes and learn about the history of Romani people. In this way, they can become conscious of both the real and fictitious aspects of social discourse about Romani communities. Discerning between the two types of discourse, they can dispose with both stereotypes and self-refusal, which is one way to become an efficient platform for affirmative identity politics. That is why the keywords of the film are education, learning, lesson and teaching, both family and institutional. As he reaches the concluding lesson of the trip on the drive home, we see pictures of his father from a home video, emphasising the importance of learning and passing on family identity to the next generations. That is how the boys learn to express their respect for their ancestors in the cemetery, where the project once started – with the ‘Romani tradition of remembrance’, as George explains.

The film concludes that we should get rid of myths and stereotypes, and become educated, just as Alexander and Christopher do. Searching for the 4th Nail won the Best Filmmaker Award at the Connecticut Film Festival (2009), partly due to its great historical relevance; it is one of the first documentary films in the USA in which Roma speak in their own voice.

Reception

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1422900/

Homapage: http://www.searchingforthe4thnail.com/

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romany_crucifixion_legend

Landau, Erica K.: ‘Searching for the 4th Nail Provides Limited Insight into Gypsy Life’, New Times Broward – Palm Beach, 18 February 2010
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/film/searching-for-the-4th-nail-provides-limited-insight-into-gypsy-life-6333885

Le Bas, Damian: ‘Searching for the 4th nail’, Travellers Times, 21 August 2013
http://travellerstimes.org.uk/News/Searching-for-the-Fourth-Nail.aspx

Screenings: http://searchingforthe4thnail.blogspot.hu/