TURA – Psychological Thriller/Drama
English/French/Manouche/Dutch
Written by: Ashar Medina, Wander Theunis, Enrico Falconi & Julie Pacino
Gya de Leon is a 25-year-old Sinti-Manouche Gypsy from eastern France. Caught between two worlds and raised in an insular community by her grandmother Miri, Gya's abandonment issues manifest in different ways. The most extreme being obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a nagging sense that things need to be clean and organized, over and over. A reclusive loner, Gya often escapes into a world of her own, incessantly watching American movies on bootleg DVD's. She also finds solace in an old VHS home video of her father Gino playing Gypsy music with his quartet under a tree.
On the eve of her arranged wedding to Lel Badzo, a wealthy yet shady member of another gypsy clan, Gya decides to escape her dead-end existence in France and try to find her long lost father in New York. She absconds with the ten thousand Euro dowry given to Miri by Lel’s family and disappears into the night.
Arriving in New York City with nothing but a small travel bag filled with a change of clothes and a couple of her favorite DVD’s Gya checks into a boutique hotel in the East Village. After an exhaustive search in the NYC Jazz scene, Gya stumbles into Small’s Jazz club where she meets Gus, late 60’s, her father’s former bassist and the only person who seems to know anything about Gino. He explains how Gino’s heroin habit got worse and worse. How he eventually got kicked out of the band and that he’s been missing without a trace for 15 years. Rumor has it that he OD’d in a doorway in the lower east side. Disheartened, but not discouraged, Gya doubles down in her quest to find Gino.
After finding a cozy flat in Queens, she prepares to move in, only to discover that the realtor was a conman who hustled her out of the last of her ill gotten gains. Gya seeks the help of Chiara, the sexy Italian bartender she met at Small’s. She offers Gya a couch to crash on for a while. Chiara also moonlights as a burlesque dancer at Pandora’s Box. Unable to find a proper job without papers, Gya reluctantly accepts Chiara’s offer to join her on the stage at Pandora’s Box. Where she takes on the sensual stage persona of Tura and starts to lose herself in Chiara’s lavish nightlife of booze, drugs, dancing and debauchery. When Chiara’s overtures are not fulfilled, she asks Gya to find her own place to live. With nowhere else to go, no one to turn to and a string of one night “shelter” stands, there is only one option, to stay with her dad’s old friend Gus for a while.
Gya and Gus seem to really hit if off. He encourages her to focus on singing and to pursue a career in music. He teaches her to control her inner turmoil and battle her demons using yoga, martial arts, meditation and diet. However, Gya secretly keeps dancing at Pandora’s Box. And is still haunted by the ghost of her grandmother Miri.
Lel and his brothers have been pursuing Gya for months, and are determined to bring his runaway bride back to France. They track her down at the club, kill the manager and abduct her. Gus screeches up in his Cadillac, busts the brothers up pretty bad and rescues the damsel in distress. They peel off into the night. A YouTube video of Gino surfaces performing in an upstate jazz bar. They take a road trip up to Lake Champlain, where Gya and Gino have an intense heart-to-heart in his caravan in the woods. He apologizes for everything: Then reveals an even bigger secret. More mayhem ensues when Lel and his bandaged brothers arrive. However, Gus saves the day, yet again.
Six months later, back in NYC, Gya takes the stage with Gus’s band at the Blue Note Jazz Club. In the presence of Chiara, Gino, her loving father, and a full enthusiastic house, Gya opens up her heart and sings her song.