USTI OPRE is a feature length documentary film. In music and images, it travels across the diverse landscapes of Central Europe and describes the inventiveness and stylistic range of Roma musical traditions. With shifting rhythms and changing textures, USTI OPRE travels from Budapest to the town of Vladicin Han in southern Serbia. From city to village, concert hall to café - USTI OPRE challenges our ideas about gypsy culture and rewards us with a rich and engaging musical panorama.

USTI OPRE brings together for the first time the Roma musicians: Balogh Kalman from Hungary, Ferenc Snetberger (Hungary/Germany), Sergey Erdenko (Russia), Leonsia Erdenko (Russia) Boban Markovic (Serbia) and special appearances by Iva Bittova (Czech Republic), Peter Ralchev and Ivo Papasov (Bulgaria). These musicians form the spiritual and musical core of the film. It is through their musical ideas and cultural backgrounds that the structural cloth of USTI OPRE is woven together.

Though music is in the foreground, we also hear the thoughts and ideas of the musicians. Conversations between musicians and amongst friends appear in counterpoint to the music. The intimacy that surrounds what we are hearing broadens our understanding of music and artist.
Through journeys to the locales where the musicians live, interaction during rehearsal, recording, and live performance, USTI OPRE explores the unique boundaries of contemporary Roma music.

USTI OPRE enters into a musical culture containing a complex of styles that reflects the history of Roma peoples. USTI OPRE describes the creative capacities of individual musicians who, despite prejudice and discrimination, have continued and built upon musical traditions and shaped new avenues of musical expression.