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Gypsy punk rocker plays his way to starring role
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By: MARILYN H. KARFELD Senior Staff Reporter
Eugene Hutz is not a household name.
That may change. The charismatic Ukrainian immigrant and leader of Gogol Bordello, a boisterous gypsy punk rock band based in New York, makes his movie debut co-starring as translator Alex in “Everything Is Illuminated.”
Skinny and luxuriously mustachioed, with a gold front tooth, Hutz, 33, personifies hipster cool in his shrunken black jacket, narrow black trousers, gold chain and heavy gold watch. With sips of vodka lubricating his tongue, Hutz says his band is “blowing up” (gaining popularity) and likes to “strike people with chaos and destruction.”
Music is a lot more fun and immediately gratifying than the physically hard work of 14-hour days shooting a film, he says. When the stage show’s over, he gets to party. On the set, he had to wait for the wrap-up bash.
In Cleveland recently to promote Schreiber’s film adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s award-winning novel, Everything Is Illuminated, Hutz says he originally spoke to the director about contributing some music to the movie’s soundtrack. Five minutes into the interview, Schreiber asked him if he had any acting experience. Could he play Alex, the guide with the fractured English and besotted worship of American culture?
“I am that guy!”responded Hutz.
Despite his genuinely thick Ukrainian accent, Hutz (rhymes with boots), is not really Alex. Before immigrating to the U.S. when he was 14 and settling in Vermont, Hutz’s family fled Kiev after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. For three years, they stayed with relatives in western Ukraine. There, he discovered his mother’s family are Gypsies, a people historically as welcome in Eastern Europe as Jews have been.
He claims an affinity toward Jews, perhaps even some metaphysical kinship. “Two minorities shoved into the same corner in Eastern Europe ... Except the Jews are a lot smarter,” he says. “They dealt with the Holocaust by uniting and organizing; gypsies, by dispersion.”
Most of his parents’ friends in Kiev were Jewish, he says, and “all Jews must die” was occasionally scrawled on the family’s front door. Then there are the three Israeli members of his band n two musicians and the soundman n with whom he somehow connected. “Who knows? People think I’m Jewish.”
He identifies with the film’s hero, Jonathan, and his search for his family’s Jewish heritage. “It’s similar for me, finding the Gypsy part of my family. It’s what defines me as a person.”
It also led to his band, Gogol Bordello, which features the sounds of violin, accordion, bass and guitar. Several of their songs are on the soundtrack of “Everything Is Illuminated.”
Singer/lyricist and acoustic guitarist, Hutz blends his band’s unique sound, combining Gypsy punk, Slavic stomp and Western rock-n-roll. The band’s third album, “Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike,” throws some heavy metal and reggae into the mix.
The film’s portrayal of anti-Semitism in Ukraine during the Holocaust and today is an accurate one, says Hutz.
When he returns to Ukraine once the film is released there, Hutz says he will be “anathematized. I don’t really care. The film supports the notion that anti-Semitism was a raging disease back in the day. It was absolutely true. No one wants to deal with it there.
“Now there are no more pogroms and they are putting up Shalom Aleichem monuments. But the larger story - it’s still there. And they hate Gypsies too.”
Ukraine is a very troubled country, says Hutz. “It’s beautiful and it’s a culture I love. But Americans think Ukraine is the accordion, red pants and vodka. It’s really radiation, corruption and sex trafficking.”
That may change. The charismatic Ukrainian immigrant and leader of Gogol Bordello, a boisterous gypsy punk rock band based in New York, makes his movie debut co-starring as translator Alex in “Everything Is Illuminated.”
Skinny and luxuriously mustachioed, with a gold front tooth, Hutz, 33, personifies hipster cool in his shrunken black jacket, narrow black trousers, gold chain and heavy gold watch. With sips of vodka lubricating his tongue, Hutz says his band is “blowing up” (gaining popularity) and likes to “strike people with chaos and destruction.”
Music is a lot more fun and immediately gratifying than the physically hard work of 14-hour days shooting a film, he says. When the stage show’s over, he gets to party. On the set, he had to wait for the wrap-up bash.
In Cleveland recently to promote Schreiber’s film adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s award-winning novel, Everything Is Illuminated, Hutz says he originally spoke to the director about contributing some music to the movie’s soundtrack. Five minutes into the interview, Schreiber asked him if he had any acting experience. Could he play Alex, the guide with the fractured English and besotted worship of American culture?
“I am that guy!”responded Hutz.
Despite his genuinely thick Ukrainian accent, Hutz (rhymes with boots), is not really Alex. Before immigrating to the U.S. when he was 14 and settling in Vermont, Hutz’s family fled Kiev after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. For three years, they stayed with relatives in western Ukraine. There, he discovered his mother’s family are Gypsies, a people historically as welcome in Eastern Europe as Jews have been.
He claims an affinity toward Jews, perhaps even some metaphysical kinship. “Two minorities shoved into the same corner in Eastern Europe ... Except the Jews are a lot smarter,” he says. “They dealt with the Holocaust by uniting and organizing; gypsies, by dispersion.”
Most of his parents’ friends in Kiev were Jewish, he says, and “all Jews must die” was occasionally scrawled on the family’s front door. Then there are the three Israeli members of his band n two musicians and the soundman n with whom he somehow connected. “Who knows? People think I’m Jewish.”
He identifies with the film’s hero, Jonathan, and his search for his family’s Jewish heritage. “It’s similar for me, finding the Gypsy part of my family. It’s what defines me as a person.”
It also led to his band, Gogol Bordello, which features the sounds of violin, accordion, bass and guitar. Several of their songs are on the soundtrack of “Everything Is Illuminated.”
Singer/lyricist and acoustic guitarist, Hutz blends his band’s unique sound, combining Gypsy punk, Slavic stomp and Western rock-n-roll. The band’s third album, “Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike,” throws some heavy metal and reggae into the mix.
The film’s portrayal of anti-Semitism in Ukraine during the Holocaust and today is an accurate one, says Hutz.
When he returns to Ukraine once the film is released there, Hutz says he will be “anathematized. I don’t really care. The film supports the notion that anti-Semitism was a raging disease back in the day. It was absolutely true. No one wants to deal with it there.
“Now there are no more pogroms and they are putting up Shalom Aleichem monuments. But the larger story - it’s still there. And they hate Gypsies too.”
Ukraine is a very troubled country, says Hutz. “It’s beautiful and it’s a culture I love. But Americans think Ukraine is the accordion, red pants and vodka. It’s really radiation, corruption and sex trafficking.”
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