roming is two intertwined stories about gypsies in the former czechoslovakia. the main story is basically a road movie, where roman, a middle aged romani man, takes his grown son to meet the woman that he was engaged to when he was 4 years old. the son lives in prague and has turned his back on roma culture, becoming a culturally a modern czech instead. the second story is a mythical epic of somali, a gypsy king who goes on a quest for the gypsy soul. at the end there's an attempt to bring the two stories together (as, i suppose, you have to do in a movie like this), and somali wanders into the lives of roman and his son as a sort of spirit of gypsyhood.
early in the movie, i was really bothered by the fact that somali seemed to be nothing but a bundle of negative gypsy stereotypes. that's before i realized he was supposed to be a fictional character. and i think the filmmakers were trying to lampoon gypsy stereotypes rather than reinforce them. but the movie never really worked. when the stories started crossing paths at the end, it seemed forced. the transformation of roman's son was predictable and contrived. "roming" wasn't a bad movie. it just didn't hold together very well.
"the edge of heaven", on the other hand, i really liked. like "roming", it explored the situation of minorities within europe, this time turks living in germany. and also liked "roming" it used the device of intertwined stories. the difference is that "the edge" did so far more effectively. the lives of ali, a turk living in
