Filth and Wisdom

Eugene Hutz, lead singer for Gogol Bordello, brings the band's gypsy punk to the screen courtesy of the Material Girl. He stars in the erotic romance as an Eastern European musician who falls in love with a stripper who wants to be a ballerina. It's Madonna's directorial debut. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. The story revolves around a Ukrainian immigrant named A.K. (Eugene Hütz) who finances his dreams of rock glory by moonlighting as a cross-dressing dominatrix and his two female flatmates: Holly (Weston), a ballet dancer who works as a stripper and pole-dancer at a local club and Juliette (Vicky McClure), a pharmacy assistant who dreams of going to Africa to help starving children. The gypsy punk band that appears in the film is portrayed by real-life band Gogol Bordello, who also contributed three songs to the film's soundtrack. The band's lead singer, Eugene Hütz, portrays the main character — a character with a philosophical attitude towards life. Madonna allowed additional dialogue written by Eugene himself to be included in the film.