The Crazy Stranger 1997

Stéphane, a young French man from Paris, travels to Romania in search of the legendary singer Nora Luca, a name his father spoke of on his deathbed. On a desolate, frost-swept road, he encounters an old Rom, Izidor, who tries to tell him about Nora Luca. The man is so inebriated that he only catches a fragment of Romani words, yet he nonetheless drags Stéphane toward his village, determined to teach him the Romani language. Believing that Izidor will guide him to Nora Luca when the moment is right, Stéphane decides to stay for months in the Roma settlement, living in Izidor’s house after Izidor’s son Adriani has been jailed.

Izidor is glad to have him as a guest, calling him “his Frenchman” and dutifully mending the traveler’s worn shoes. The other Roma initially eye him with suspicion, speaking to him in their language and treating him as a possible lunatic, even pulling him into a tent where women bathe and coaxing him to utter rude words. Yet Stéphane’s deep respect for their music and culture gradually wins them over, opening a rare, intimate window into Roma life—from a bustling wedding to a mournful funeral.

The village’s only French speaker is Sabina, a divorced Romani dancer, and she is openly hostile at first. But as the two spend time together recording traditional Romani music across the countryside, a stubborn bond forms between them, forged through shared journeys and a growing trust. Sabina’s initial reserve softens, and their partnership becomes the emotional core of Stéphane’s immersion in a world far from his Parisian upbringing.

One day, just as the pair are about to share a first kiss, Adriani returns after months in jail. The village rejoices, but the men soon have to leave for a performance, and Stéphane and Sabina take the chance to slip away to be together. Their moment of privacy is interrupted when Adriani goes to a local bar and murders a man he blames for his imprisonment. He escapes, but a mob tracks him down and burns the village to the ground, killing him in the blaze. Stéphane and Sabina return to find the ruins and are utterly devastated. Izidor rushes outside and pleads with the earth to open up and reunite him with his son.

Grief-stricken, Stéphane drives to the mile marker where the film began. He hammers the tapes he recorded with Sabina into the stone, a symbolic burial of his travels, and pours vodka over the “grave” before performing a somber, ritual dance in the manner of Izidor at his brother’s funeral. In the final shot, the camera lingers on the back of a car: Sabina sits asleep in the vehicle, awakens, notices the improvised funeral rite, and offers a quiet, hopeful smile as the screen fades to black.