Romeo and Juliet with a genealogical twist and questionable racial science.
Cattion d'Urville takes in a gypsy, Sarah, and her granddaughter Miarka, in an outbuilding of her chateau. Miarka, while growing up, attracts the attention of Luigi, Cattion's nephew who, little by little, falls in love with her. Sarah raised her daughter in the tradition of gypsies who curse anyone who marries a man who is not a gypsy. Miarka ends up loving Luigi and he wants to marry her. The law of race opposes it. Fortunately, a well-conducted genealogical investigation will discover that Luigi is of the gypsy race. They will marry.
Acting
Rama-Tahé's smoldering looks despite the script's nonsense.
Costume
Exoticized 'gypsy' wardrobe vs. stiff bourgeois chateau fashion.
Director
Jean Choux
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film embodies 1930s French obsession with 'race scientifique,' where romantic conflict hinges on eugenic anxiety rather than family feud.
Marcel Dalio appears here as a mayor; he'd later flee Nazi-occupied France despite his 'acceptable' screen presence, making the film's racial categorizations bitterly ironic.
FR
