Jimmy Rosenberg: The Father, The Son & The Talent (2006)

Directed by: Jeroen Berkvens | 77 minutes | documentary

Even if you’re a world-class guitar talent, life can still be a challenge. Jimmy Rosenberg, nephew of the famous Stochelo Rosenberg of the Rosenberg trio, was already in the spotlight as a child and earned many millions as an adolescent. Raised in a simple gypsy environment and not used to a life full of wealth, the guitarist is exposed to all kinds of unhealthy temptations from an early age. What that eventually led to can be seen in the beautiful documentary ‘Jimmy Rosenberg – the father, the son & the talent’.

Director Jeroen Berkvens followed Jimmy and his family in a period when everything seems to be changing. Dad is out of jail and Jimmy has just been released from an institution where he needed to get some rest. Interspersed with archive footage of a very young guitar virtuoso, father and sons talk about the ups and downs in their lives. In those interviews we regularly get to see close-ups of their eyes or hands, and they often tell more than the spoken words. Equally telling are the images in which Jimmy picks up a guitar and is completely happy in his own universe.

While the Sinti’s gypsy community is known for being extremely secretive, it’s striking how candid the members of the Rosenberg family talk here. Berkvens ensures that the information comes to us well-dosed, so that the tragic family history unfolds slowly but clearly. One doesn’t need a degree in psychology to understand what went wrong with Jimmy Rosenberg. Drugs, compelling family ties, an unstable personality and a disproportionate sense of guilt proved to be more than enough to make the young guitarist’s life hell. And not only the life of Jimmy himself, also two of his brothers have lost their way in the meantime.

Although he has been in prison for a violent crime like his father and is therefore not a very nice boy, it is difficult not to feel sympathy for Jimmy Rosenberg. Whoever sees the thoroughly damaged guitarist sitting on his bed, with that tired and ever-approving look in his eyes, can only hope that life still has some kind of redemption in store for him. But no matter how optimistic Jimmy is about that, as a viewer you mainly see that deadly tired look. All this makes ‘Jimmy Rosenberg – the father, the son & the talent’ a documentary that makes you anything but happy. But you won’t get rid of that lump in your throat anytime soon.