TONY GATLIF Born in 1948, in Algiers, Michel Dahamani (Tony) Gatlif is of both Algerian and gypsy descent. It is in his dual origins that he has found the inspiration for most of his films. His second feature film, La terre au ventre (1978), for example, refers to the Algerian war. Made in 1982, Les princes is an uncompromising description of gypsies who have settled in a faceless suburb. It is «an act of love, a passionate film in which the director sets about defending and describing the gypsy people with forceful eloquence» (Ch. Bosseno). Sensitive to marginalized people, he filmed La rue du départ in 1985, followed by Pleure pas my love (1988), with Fanny Ardant, about the dramatic passion between a teenager who has grown up with the magic of cinema and a movie star. Gatlif spent 1992 and 1993 shooting the award-winning Latcho drom, a feature-length documentary which deals with gypsy culture throughout the world, while focussing on the theme of their music and dance. A year later, Gatlif brought the world of the author Le Clézio to the screen in Mondo (1994). This was followed in 1997 by Gadjo dilo, of which journalist Jacques Maigne wrote, in a letter to Gatlif: «This film resembles you, Tony, like no other, simply because in it, you confront, head on, the heart of things. No one else has shown gypsies the way you have». FILMOGRAPHY 1975 La tête en ruines 1978 La terre au ventre 1981 Canta gitano (short film) 1982 Corte gitano Les princes 1985 La rue du depart 1988 Pleure pas my love 1990 Gaspard et Robinson 1993 Latcho drom 1994 Mondo 1997 Gadjo dilo Latcho drom LATCHO DROM The film retraces the long musical and historical journey of the gypsies, from their origins in North-west India, through Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and France. Having left the North-West of India almost 1,000 years ago, for reasons unknown, the gypsies travelled across Europe and North Africa. Along the way, the names «Gitan», «Halab», «Tsigane», «Bohemian» and «Gypsy» were given to the Rom people. Latcho drom travels across eight countries,discovering on its way the extraordinary variety of chants, music and dances brought there by the Rom, whose history appears neither in books nor in musical stores: it is only through this oral musical tradition that the memory of their origins has been kept alive, throughout this millenium marked by hate and rejection. Gatlif said of his film: «In Romani, "Latcho drom" means "Have a good journey"; this is my wish to gypsies all around the world». Direction: Tony Gatlif. / Screenplay: Tony Gatlif. / Cinematography: Eric Guichard. / Editing: Nicole D-V Berckmans. / Sound: Nicolas Naegelen. / Sets: Denis Mercier. / Producer: Michèle Ray-Gavras. / Production: KG Production-Distribution. / World Sales: KG Productions-Distribution, 244 rue Saint Jacques, Paris 75005, France, tel.: 33 1 4441 1373, fax: 33 1 4441 1374. 35mm / Colour 100' Les princes THE PRINCES They all live together in a non-descript area, surrounded by abandoned factories: Nara, a man in his thirties, who has renounced his wife for taking the pill in secret, Zorka, their nine-year-old daughter, and the old woman, who carries the past on her shoulders. Nara goes along the railway tracks on a white horse, and comes back with an old television set, an angora cat for his little girl, a disembowled armchair that needs repairing. Around him, strangers, men out of a job or hoodlums, friends or enemies, eaten away by the rage to survive on this garbage heap where society has thrown them. They are like the grass that grows in the cracks of concrete. Whenever they go, they are unwanted; and yet they raise their head and split in the face of those that scorn them, as, eyes burning with pride, they escape once more. Direction: Tony Gatlif. / Screenplay: Tony Gatlif. / Cinematography: Jacques Loiseleux. / Editing: Claudine Bouché. / Sound: Bernard Ortion. / Sets: Denis Champenois. / Costumes: Miruna Boruzescoux, Rose-Marie Melka. / Music: Tony Gatlif. / Cast: Gérard Darmon, Muse Dalbray, Céline Militon, Concha Tavora. / Producer: Ken & Romaine Legargeant. / Production: ACC, Babylone Films. / World Sales: Artedis S.A., 2 rue Raynouard, Paris 75016, France, tel.: 33 1 5392 2929, fax: 33 1 5392 2920. 35mm / Colour 100' Gadjo dilo GADJO DILO Stephane, a young Parisian, arrives in Bucharest's north station in the middle of winter. There is a mysterious woman's chant that he makes people listen to wherever he goes. His obsessive quest takes him to Valachie, deep into the heart of the land of a tormented people, the Lautaris, "gypsy musicians". Old Isidor is his ferry-man, the one who will allow him to gradually enter this chaotic world, both picturesque and violent, amusing and harsh. Stephane adapts to the rhythm of life on this screaming planet of mud and mudness, where contempt and xenophobia lurk. Among the Valachie gypsies, Stephane, the gadjo (foreigner) from Paris, will find his place, without losing the thread of his obsession; the gypsy chant which he has to find again. He is only a visitor, a passer-by who will be enriched by his journey. Direction: Tony Gatlif. / Screenplay: Tony Gatlif. / Cinematography: Eric Guichard. / Editing: Monique Dartonne. / Sound: Nicolas Naegelen. / Cast: Romain Duris, Rona Hartner, Izidor Serban, Ovidiu Balan. / Production: Princes Film (France). / World Sales: Celluloid Dreams, 24 rue Lamartine, F-75009 Paris, France, tel.: 33 1 4970 0370, fax: 33 1 4970 037. 35mm / Colour 100'