Tony Gatlif | |
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.jpg) Tony Gatlif in 2016 | |
| Born | Michel Dahmani (1948-09-10)10 September 1948 (age 77) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director,producer,screenwriter,actor,composer |
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Tony Gatlif is a Frenchfilm director who also works as ascreenwriter,composer,actor, andproducer.[1] Born 10 September 1948 as Michel (Boualem) Dahmani in Algeria, then officially part of France, to a Berber (Kabyle) father and an Andalusian-Romani mother, Gatlif’s cultural background is fairly complex.[2]
Gatlif was born inAlgeria ofPied noir ancestry.[3] After his childhood there, Gatlif arrived in France in 1960 following theAlgerian War of Independence.
Gatlif struggled for years to break into thefilm industry, playing in severaltheatrical productions until directing his first film,La Tête en ruine, in 1975. He followed it with the 1979La Terre au ventre, a story of the Algerian War of Independence.
Since the 1981 filmCorre, gitano, Gatlif's work has been focused on theRomani people ofEurope, from whom he partially traces his descent.
After makingGaspard et Robinson in 1990, Gatlif spent 1992 and 1993 shootingLatcho Drom, which was awarded numerous prizes. This feature-length musical film, often mislabelled as a documentary, deals with gypsy culture throughout the world around the theme of their music and dance. For Vincent Ostria, then journalist at the Cahiers du Cinéma, it was "the most genuine film of the year (1993 editor's note)." A year later, Gatlif brought the world of the authorJ. M. G. Le Clézio to the screen inMondo (1994).
His 2004 filmExils, won theBest Director Award at the2004 Cannes Film Festival.[4] His filmTransylvania also premiered atCannes in May 2006.[5] He was awarded the ‘Itinérances’ prize in 2022 by the Alès Film Festival – Itinérances.
