"The World of the Gábor" is a DW documentary with English narration. This time, DW takes us to Romania, specifically Transylvania, where we get to meet a Roma (Gypsy) community known as the Gábor. Its most peculiar trait is that they are Adventists, which I presume mean members of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church. Otherwise, the Gábor seem to have a very traditional Roma culture. Almost no Gábor children finish school, the community practices child marriage, and the lifestyle includes nomadism, tribal courts and handicraft production. The language heard is Hungarian, but the narrator claims that most Gábor are trilingual, and also speak Romanian and Romanes (the Gypsy language).
The documentary follows a 14-year old child bride and her equally young husband. Since the Gábor only marry within their own group, the young couple are relatives (perhaps cousins). They are also extremely fertile, and often have grandkids at the age of 35! The Gábor refuse to work for non-Gypsies, which seems to create problems for the less prosperous among them, who are dependent on welfare hand-outs from the Romanian state (note that this *isn´t* prohibited according to the Gábor ethic). The more prosperous Gábors, by contrast, are *very* rich. They trade in gold, jewels and expensive textiles, even employing Hungarians who make or help value the gold objects. Most of the documentary allows us a sneak peak into the household of a privileged family of this kind. It´s interesting to note that even this seemingly sedentary family group sells its goods by going door to door, or traveling abroad.
Interesting production, although perhaps a bit too uncritical? Also, the narrator speaks in a very annoying super-British accent, which sounds artificial.
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