A good film, unusual too - but downbeat and quite unpleasant to sit through: aspects of Bob Hoskins' debut as director/star which harmed its prospects at the box-office. The rawney of the title is a deserter from an unnamed war in an unknown country. He stumbles, dressed as a women, into an encampment of gipsies also on the run from the war,and is sheltered by a girl,who knows he is a man and subsequently has his baby. To the gipsies,he remains a rawney, a mad women, and brings them magical luck before turning into a jinx. Though Hoskins himself never really convinces as a gipsy, the film is full of super performances, especially Ian MacNeice as a friendly farmer and Zoe Nathanson as the girl. The ending is smashing, just right and, unlike some of the film, not over-protracted.


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