Review of Pavee Lackeen: The Traveller Girl (2005) by Jean-Francois V — 22 May 2009

"Pavee Lackeen" ("traveller girl" in their dialect) is a slice-of-life docudrama that gives an inside view of the Traveller community by following the day-to-day activities of a mostly female family living in a trailer on the outskirts of Dublin, and particularly those of ten-year-old Winnie, who doesn't know much about anything (Russia and "education" have to be explained to her, and she has no idea what year or day she was born, she only knows what month), has trouble fitting in school, and spends her life wandering about, talking to shop owners, occasionally stealing from them, rummaging for clothes in junkyards, fighting with other kids, inhaling intoxicants and fetching water for mum's tea or gas for the power generator.

Having already seen the episode of the British documentary series "What Happened Next?" devoted to the traveller community ("They Steal Children, Don't They?"), I already knew much of what "Pavee Lackeen" has to say about the subject. And having seen "Children Underground", I also had a similar but much more powerful documentary to compare it to in terms of emotional impact. But I did find the experience enlightening, and I was impressed by the way the film makes you see the world from the point of view of the travellers. When Winnie looks through a shop window at a woman trying on a wedding dress, what she sees feels about as alien to you as it does to her, like some unreal scene from a fantasy world.

I did not find the film depressing, perhaps because apart from the drug sniffing, the kids do not live wholly dysfunctional lives. The mother is a decent person (well, apart from the smoking and drinking), and Winnie has at least integrated the garbled Catholic values of her community, including a healthy fear of hell and sense of modesty and purity. I would rather have grown up in such an environment than be the spoilt kid of some architect of the culture of death like Obama. Moreover, Winnie is tough, curious and resourceful, even though she looks a bit dazed and suffers from exposure to modern cultural trash. You get the feeling that she will make something of her life, just like Winnie the real girl who, after all, has just made an impressive debut as an actress.

If you decide to watch this film, I suggest you look for a subtitled copy, because the Irish accent renders much of the dialogue incomprehensible, at least to a foreigner like me.