Tony Gatlif (born as Michel Dahmani on 10 September 1948 in Algiers) is a French film director of Romani ethnicity who also works as a screenwriter, composer, actor, and producer.

Biography

Tony Gatlif was born on September 10, 1948 in Algiers. Like many fellow citizens, he left Algeria in the early 1960s.

During his elementary school years he discovered the cinema. A teacher bought a 16mm projector and showed a movie every week, which served as the basis for a passion in film.
“ [I] have seen the films of Vigo, Renoir, from John Ford and Chaplin’s … That is my cinema education.”

By day, Gatlif sneaked into the cinema halls of the Grands Boulevards, in order to be able to sleep in warm places. One evening in 1966, he was courageous enough to seek out his idol, actor Michel Simon, after a theatrical performance in Simon's dressing room. The actor wrote Gatlif a recommendation that helped him attend an acting course in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Five years later, Gatlif acted in an Edward Bond stage play (produced by Claude Régy) near another beginner - Gérard Depardieu. Around the same time, Gatlif wrote his first screenplay La Rage au poing, inspired by his experiences in educational institutions. Eric Le Hung takes over control. During the filming Gatlif decides to change the script to direct. In 1975 he shot his first film La Tête en ruine.

1981 results in Spain, the film Corre Gitano, in the Sinti and Roma from Grenada and Seville are seen. “It is the first film in which I think Rom claim status. It is a film that says: I am Rom. Despite everything, despite the persecutions of contempt. I exist, we exist …”

With the film Les Princes (1983) is discovered Tony Gatlif. Les Princes is a film without passion and without compromise of the Sinti and Roma who have settled in the Paris suburbs. A film that Gatlif as “Brass Knuckles” means, can the show through the filmmaker and his style. 1985 chreibt and turns Gatlif Rue du Départ, the story of Clara (Christine Boisson), a young, wandering in search of her father’s picture. Pleure pas my love (1989) is an answer to all those who accuse him of telling only by outsiders. It is a fairy tale in which Tony Gatlif turns out to be sentimental painter. It follows Gaspard and Robinson (1990), a Sozialkomödie and a friendship story against the background of unemployment.

1992 throws himself into the adventure of Tony Gatlif Latcho Drom, a hymn to the music of Sinti and Roma. With a small team, he sets out on the trail of the Sinti and Roma, on a musical journey that takes him over an entire year of Rajasthan to Andalusia, via Egypt, Romania, Hungary and France. The film is an unexpected success at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard series. Another meeting his next film: the encounter with the work of Mondo (1996), the story of a ten-year-old child who arrives without a family in Nice determined, and its author, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.

1997 describes the film Gadjo Dilo the arrival of a young Gadjos (i.e. non-Rom) in a Roma village in Romania, is looking for a missing singer. Touching and refreshing at the same time, the film was in France and abroad, a great audience and critics success. The following year, Tony Gatlif takes the now famous pair of Gadjo Dilo, Romain Duris and Rona Hartner again, this time for the freedom-fighting film Je suis né d’une cigogne.

Vengo (2000) describes the rivalry between two Andalucian families. It enabled Gatlif for the first time to work with the great flamenco dancer Antonio Canales. Swing (2002) was filmed in eastern France, and describes the encounter of Max, a young boy who wants to learn Django Reinhardt’s guitar playing. Exile, again with Romain Duris in a leading role (2004), was Tony Gatlif’s 14th Feature film. Exile celebrated its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and Gatlif won the prize for best director.