the hour here in moscow you're watching our headlines years of behind bars for the russian punk band pussy riot triggers an avalanche of reaction both at home and abroad but russia defends the sentence less than they would have received. in the u.s. the occupy protesters taking to a new level demonstrators stormed barack obama's campaign office demanding the release of jailed whistleblowers. by the end of all of it though several people were arrested. and even with its multibillion dollar defense projects u.s. troops still can counter the devastating effects of. homemade explosives.

are those the headlines for now though a special report exploring the life of gypsies in russia and how their lifestyle and customs often collide with us around. there will be no kiss for the bride at this wedding nor will the couple don't sell for the ceremony in fact the newlyweds won't get anywhere near each other a tool to an outsider it's hard to tell which of these men is the group. but the under like a new husband is standing a little apart from the rest. nine twelve my wife is fifteen there never kiss is a wedding so much it is against the law we will start talking to each other in

a month or so. however. our marriage is the main objective in life for a caldera but none of them a free to choose their own partners children have no say in who they marry it's the parents who arranged the weddings. more often than not a young couple will be married just three days after they're introduced. a. twelve year old has been a husband for a year now his parents paid two hundred thousand rubles that's almost seven thousand dollars as a dowry for the future lady of the house. she's got such green eyes she's beautiful and smart and she knows how to make tea she's hardworking that's great why else would i marry or working is good all the dishes should be done and

everything must be in order at home. when they found a husband for a lane i didn't like him but it made no difference because they had already made their choice these are our customs you know so your loan to like you made to. three families live in this house yes just parents yasha and his older brother together with their wives yes his brother is fifteen and he already has a child everyone helps to babysit whoever is free because the nanny. her daughters in law always do the cooking and cleaning as soon as a girl is married she takes on all the housework but the mother in law doesn't believe that modern young ladies know how to keep the house in order properly. by.

i mean how take the mop and clean the floors oh. come on come on why do i have to ask all day to get the dishes washed. before her marriage yes his wife cassandra had a dream an unusual one for a modern romany girl the way i wanted to become a nurse but there's no way romany girls can do that. girls here must live by many strict rules they cannot refuse to work cannot be brushed off to lunch and they're not allowed to cross the path of a man even their skirts mustn't touch a man no studies and no dreams for a child or a girl. men have a different fate they have to study but not for long five years at most

they only need to know how to read and write in russian and above all else account . of. what has been teaching my child for five heroes isn't feels reinado but he doesn't know anything. he can under it at all and he can only do it just a little bit of math i don't know what they have been teaching him. mothers play a little part in their children's education but all of the women help to look after the camp's children. the biggest danger is posed by roads to. russians always read bedtime stories to put their children to sleep i simply rock my baby sing a lullaby to him and that's it i never read to him i don't need books because i can't read. all of the camps men are builders without exception

they specialize in building summer houses and so on as. sunday is always their busiest day as they all make their way to nearby villages in search of work. and unlike women romany men are allowed to dream. i want to have a house and a beautiful car. you know a foreign made car. the camp where yasha lives was set up no more than two years ago the community here is not particularly wealthy all the money and by the men goes towards home renovations. it's rare to spend a lot of money on children they have few toys and play with whatever they can find computers are almost unheard of yes i first saw a laptop when he visited a neighboring camp they're very easy. first you have to flip it open.

and then you have to switch it on. that wait for it to load. next him is considered the local genius he knows all the football clubs and the players by heart. is going to want you for both since he was five six actually for example who's fifteen for spain. portugal number ten this is no number ten in portugal steve no no. what about number seven for portugal seven in portugal yeah everyone knows that kris jenner now there are you know germany's goalkeeper and then when neuer. like i'll be a bit older when i grow up not a football player. romany men can become football players. we will become full this motion.

there is. how the romanian. it includes a colorful shirt and. bright colored. however they romany in england looked like this because they mainly people gave them. several years ago nicol of a son often. lost a unique cultural project called spanker mini festival they are trying to recreate everyday romany life from far away and long ago nicholai and valarie an attempt to reconstruct every tiny detail. they were is the children english woman you will name wearing a slightly torn apron and nicolai all the details from that picture therefore it is very authentic. but the to believe their most important goal is

to gather a record of the details of today's romany culture. according to historians romany folklore tends to fade to generations after moving to a new campsite. they adopt a local music and singing traditions and their clothes also change. is a professional singer and dancer. traditional costumes herself excess arrays and even uses oil paint as makeup romany women used to spend all their time working in the open and so their skin tone was one that can't be replicated with conventional cosmetics. one of the important details is bare feet the nine hundred fifty six soviet decree on gypsy vagrants and labor was adopted by the council of ministers this man for

the romany needed to start wearing shoes when performing and dancing at the theater but those living in the encampments still get around in bare feet. no historians of filming svetlana performing the romany dance she's married to a really a man who has lived in a camp for ten years now. is against the law many culture is fading away and we have to document all the music the clothes and the dance moves while we still have the time with you two hundred years from now people will be grateful that we did we cannot forget the romany world. and this is how the russian romany used to dance back in the good old

days. like the traditional dance of the russian river many she does not hold don't do. it from t.v. and typical downslope like that is just that new nation playing in the past dance competitions were held the one who danced the longest and did not repeat themselves was the winner and well many woman can make forty different movements in a rural now very few can do that and it's the same with folk songs they are gradually being forgotten and the repertoire now contains only songs from t.v. . culture is disappearing and we can feel it in our bones.

for nickelodeon valarie up and ready for a new adventure they want to travel from one color or a mini camp to another. question cassandra a very rarely seen together today's an exception they've been sent to the city market. alexandra is one of the so-called golden ring cities of russia it's one hundred thirty kilometers from moscow boasting a kremlin of its own and a rich history in the sixteenth century and it's terrible a marriage market took place here thousands of beautiful girls flocked to alexander of so that the sun could hand pick a wife from the crowd the nearby villages were founded hundreds of years ago as well this romany can't settle down there one of them. a narrow rule road separates these two dramatically different worlds the money

tends to keep to themselves they live close to society yet still remain separate the only ones out of eighteen romany communities in russia. we grow many are just romany we don't care about them they don't care about us our children don't make friends with them and to be honest we don't have many children here mostly old people. why would i be friends with them my parents even tell me not to. i am one of those go for a ride. let's go to the movies a scooter yours. let's go for a ride. let's go all right. the boys once tried playing football together but it

didn't go very well and we don't play against the romany boys much there's no fun in playing them because every time they play dirty and they always kick us in the shins. that we do not allow them to get too close to russia and they may tempt them into going to nightclubs for example and we definitely do not want that that we do not allow any of that sort of thing. nicholas on off on villa to you know will come here to the village of touch other know. where they'll be plenty of work waiting for them because here they'll find a slice of traditional romany culture still intact. by isolation and prejudice. to fight aging.

do it with passion. to. learn to fly. jump to the top. ignore the pay. stage or show. magine assets. phone watches show every single. and waiting for you to stumble. i saw a man with a video camera so i moved over and he followed me. you know we realized they were following everyone from early in the morning.

the only chance to get rid of him. is to reveal him. the devil operation on archie. yeah. yeah going to. go to the end of the cold or russia room in the who arrived in russia from romania in the eight hundred seventy s. these are people who strictly observe the traditions that others have long since forgotten the culture wash post a very interesting musical culture they use one melody for a very long song which they can sing for two hours on end and today only a few old people can still sing them.

and know this song another song this is the only song i know just one more song because no one remembers anything anymore thank god i found some live. musicians come to the incumbent together with malaria nicholai to help liven things up and inspire other residents to historians hope they'll finally see our real tell the rest of us. that they're out of luck. and told to load up on. top that. was. all there.

it wants a cold or worse dancer would hunch a little bit staring at the floor a culture rush woman ought to show that she is the submissive wife this old fashioned manner has almost been forgotten now but a colder oh sure now adopting russian romany folklore many now dance like russian romany do on t.v. . but thank you i. do not think the romany themselves see that things are changing the older generation a woman had traditional braids is mean if you are right younger women have more modern hair styles skirts have changed they used to be multi-colored well now they are playing head scarves used to be twisted like this while now they wear regular

scarves. but there is one tradition that seems unshakable and marrying off children at an early age boys mary is ten years old. and a future husband plays no part in choosing his wife and his parents who pick one out for him and pay for the bride with a gold coins that we used back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries these coins can still be built today. previously the groom was supposed to bring enough dresses to last the bride for ten years now it's more common simply to present her with bolts of cloth after all even gypsy dresses go out of fashion. to raise a preparing for her son's wedding she's already bought a lot of fabric but has yet to find a bride. yet i don't know yet which bride i'm going to. still undecided there is beautiful girl at a neighboring encampment she's told and

a beautiful. expression that. is your wife beautiful yes. that's important too she will most likely make a good housewife another important factor is that she comes from a good family. they often have to travel great distances to find a bright one of somebody else marries this girl it is better to marry her now before someone else chooses her they are not going to live together as husband and wife now as they are too young they will be living together as brother and sister the girl will get used to her in-laws and it will be very unlikely that they will have any family conflicts this is overwhelmingly jew to the fact that spouses gets know each other from a very young age and the young man once he is married becomes more sponsible when he reaches eighteen he will be a man with his feet firmly on the ground. which i also want to ask you

do you go to school together with russian kids. yes we play football together as well but for some reason they don't want to play with us anymore. one of their players said the other has a headache but no counteraction have been playing football for ages since they were nomads then they used to come to villages and play football with russians russian romany don't play football like the calderon who are very keen on it the russians are afraid to play with us really good you know but we will break their legs. the arrival of the research as has become the talk of the camp and set off an unexpected series of events the boys have been set free to play in a friendly local match but with caution. their parents are worried that the romany kids might play dirty and get beaten up for it. although. it was hard to persuade enough children to get up early to play in the game.

are you really going to play like this. when i come on. let's go there. and. we. both decided to strengthen the romany team by including players from the football club their opponents are wearing green shirts. once the game begins it's clear that there were many team hasn't a hope of winning. well where are the defenders who's a defender on the left there is a you. well why did you go over there that. defenders are not supposed to attack.

you mistake over here well then you say here. oh. and stop swearing. and don't swear. why don't you catch the ball i can be ok but. i can be ok but. yeah guys the goalkeeper is doing fine leave him be. ninety. nine three. each year to do a group it's been a time because of the penalty kick each of you should be playing in your specific areas right back say on the right but you're running left. that you're on the right

bank correct and you went to the left if you want to learn we have paid lessons that are a thousand roubles a month. after getting a real taste of football the boys share their memories back at the romany camp. even tells his wife that he's going to talk to his father about playing football at the club but he needs money for it. well i didn't think kid's father would let him do that. yes or can't find the right moment to talk to his father everyone in the camp is busy preparing for a house warming party one family is celebrating their son starting his new life in a new home. no one in the camp knows exactly when the celebration is going to take place until the very last moment it doesn't matter if it's just a house warming party or a wedding the timing is often not announced until the day itself only then other people from neighboring camps invited to join the festivities. in the

old times they went to the market to tell fortunes but the romany from this camp don't do that anymore they've forgotten. despite her name because sandra has no plans to become a clairvoyant she doesn't see the point. nowadays the romany head to the market just to buy groceries interestingly the men help out with this task which is usually considered a woman's job. i know that. during a celebration everyone in the camp must know their place women do not sit at the same table as men like. they done with energy and gusto. maria misses the old traditions the arrival of the roman historians has inspired

her she really feels like dancing to an accordion and drinking tea from a summer. so she decides to gather the young people together and celebrate the holiday according to the old traditions. but the sad truth is that the some of it has already been sold and they've had to call in a russian musician because no one remembers how to play the accordion. i'm . muslim a little bit of the celebration wasn't a huge success the movie started playing football while the goals ran off to pick berries.

yasha still hasn't mustered up the courage to talk to his father about becoming a professional footballer that's just still a distant dream tomorrow he'll go to the construction site with his father to paint fences to earn my. me for something much more realistic like a car. not an. area a nickel i will continue hunting for precious examples of fading romany culture.