SYNOPSIS

In the international music world, Věra Bílá is hailed as the most significant musical artist from the Czech republic: at home, she is recognized as an extraordinary personality with dozens of influential admirers. Věra Bílá is not a "typical Gypsy" nor does she represent the usual experiences of the Czech Roma community. She is a distinctive individual with her own personal concerns. Nevertheless, the film BLACK AND WHITE IN COLOUR reveals how she retains a deep attachment to Romany traditions both in her music and her way of life.

The film starts with Věra singing ahalgato, a traditional Romany ballad about her life. Her vast figure is clothed in a red dress as she prepares to appear before agadze concert audience who will not understand her words.

Her music draws on the experiences of material hardship her family knew in Slovakia. The memory of dire poverty fuels Věra's obsession with money. We see her haggling over second hand clothes in Rokycany, the small town in Bohemia where she lives, devoted to her invalid husband Franta and their adopted son Kiki.

The public applaud her performance unaware of a domestic tragedy when her son is imprisoned for burglary and not comprehending the lyrics that speak of living in isolation among sycophants.

Her band Kale are also family members. Each has a specific talent for cheering Věra up. Their manager Ervín knows, that no funny faces or dancing will ease her inner suffering.

Resolved to ensure her son will not have time to become entangled in criminal circles any more, Věra heads to Slovakia to find him a bride. She visits her husband's village and where her mother grew up. It is her first visit to Slovakia for over 25 years. In some places she feels scared; in others she is welcomed as a superstar, but she is conscious of how far she has lost contact with her origins. Yet this is where her music is rooted and she leads a settlement in singing her version of a traditional Romany song. In accordance with Romany customs, her son's bride should come from the extended family. For Věra, the poorer the better as she feeld poverty ensures the ability to cope. Back in Rokycany, her son returns from jail. Even when he dismisses her plans for an arranged marriage, nothing can spoli Věra's joy at having him back. More important that selling CDs or delighting concert audiences is for Věra, passing on her musical heritage. Teaching Romany songs to Ida Kellerova's international choir seems to offer a way to do so. But Kale must accommodate a change in its line-up as the lead guitarist moves in with Ida, prefering to play at more lucrative venues than with his Romany relatives.

Each member of the band brings their own life expereinces into the songs they compose. They provide an insight into everyday life among Rokycany's Roma community. One sings in the steel foundry where he works of being too poor to marry, another rushes from digging with a pneumatic drill to playing a ballad about Czech racism. The bass guitarist has developed his own form of worshipas he feels unwelcome in the white church services.

Meanwhile, Věra is in financial difficulties again, partly from spending all her income - including social welfare payments - gambling in fruit machines. She sings of getting rich but instead the whole band is alarmed at the prospect of her going to jail unless she can raise the money to pay the social security back. Amid recriminations with her husband, the manager Ervín, manages to secure a loan from the record company.

Věra's music takes her across cultural boundaries. She is popular among young Czechs at a concert at a trendy Prague club, but she is equally at home with her father's traditional cymbal band. Věra is aware of the jealousy within the Czech Romany community as well as the envy from her white neighbours. She blames journalists for giving an exaggerated impression of her success. While she appears on the main television news in France and her posters are plastered all over the Paris metro, she is reduced to pawning her stereo and her manager sells sausages to make ends meet.

Performing in Paris is not just glamour and fame. Her international agent is determined to establish her name but recognizes that means endless press conferences, interviews and public appearances. Although Vűra likes the cosmopolitan atmosphere in Paris, her enthusiasm at being a performing exotic monkey soon wears off, especially as it becomes apparent how little she is being paid.

The character that emerges from the film is a woman deeply attatched to her family and her origins. Her music provides an opportunity for relieving her anxieties about securing sufficient food and money but it also sweeps her into a competitive business which has little regard for her mood or feelings. Whether Věra Bílá is poised for international stardom or a decline into obscurity depends on whether she can maintain her attachment to where she belongs, and preserve her health in the face of the stresses these conflicts inevitably bring.