Franco-Algerian filmmaker Tony Gatlif, known for films such as Gadjo Dilo and for his constant exploration of Romani culture and identity, died on September 3 in Arles, in the south of France. He was 77 years old. He was born Michel Boualem Dahmani on September 10, 1948, in Algiers. He was the son of a man of Kabyle origin and a woman with Andalusian and Gypsy roots.
His childhood was marked by poverty. “My father, a Gypsy and free spirit, did not respect the curfew of the Algerian War and would go out drinking on his motorcycle,” he said in an interview with this outlet in 2011. He grew up in the slums on the outskirts of the Algerian capital until, at 14, he left Algeria and moved to France in the early 1960s. There he went through years of hardship and even minor run-ins with the law. “It is impossible for a street kid without education to end up becoming a lawyer. But not to end up being an actor, a painter, or a writer.”
After working as an actor, Gatlif gradually began to develop his own film projects. His work was deeply linked to his personal experiences and Romani culture, whose traditions, music, and social difficulties became some of the main themes of his filmography. “I am who I am thanks to boldness and luck. Boldness comes from pride and the heritage of my Gypsy culture, the one that does not allow anyone to be looked in the eye from below,” he confessed to EL PAÍS.
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He debuted as a director in 1975 with La Tête en ruines. Later he shot Corre Gitano in Spain, a drama about a young Gypsy unjustly accused of a crime. In 1992 he received the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes Film Festival for Latcho Drom, a documentary focused on Gypsy music and its journey through different communities.
His international recognition also came with Gadjo Dilo (The Crazy Stranger), one of his most famous films. Starring Romain Duris, the story follows a young Frenchman who travels to Romania in search of a Romani singer whose voice he had heard in recordings of his late father. The film premiered at the Locarno Festival in 1997, where it won the Silver Leopard. Years later, Gatlif triumphed again at Cannes. In 2004 he won the Best Director award for Exils, an autobiographical drama. Over the following decades, the filmmaker maintained a prolific career with titles such as Korkoro (2009), The Outraged (2012), Geronimo (2014), Djam (2017), Tom Medina (2021) and Ange (2025).
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