Tony Gatlif

Tony Gatlif

Born: September 10, 1948
in Algiers
Gatlif was born in Algiers to a Kabyle father and a Romani mother.  After his childhood there, Gatlif arrived in France in 1960 following the Algerian War of Independence.

Gatlif struggled for years to break into the film industry, playing in several theatrical productions until directing his first film, La Tête en ruine, in 1975. He followed it with the 1979 La Terre au ventre, a story of the Algerian War of Independence.

Since the 1981 Corre, gitano, Gatlif's work has been focused on the Romani people of Europe, from whom he partially traces his descent.

After making Gaspard et Robinson in 1990, Gatlif spent 1992 and 1993 shooting Latcho 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 author J. M. G. Le Clézio (pen-name) to the screen in Mondo (1994).

His 2004 film Exils, won the Best Director Award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.  His film Transylvania also premiered at Cannes in May 2006.

Movies for Tony Gatlif...

Winter Song
Title: Winter Song
Character: Le Truand
Released: November 25, 2015
Type: Movie
Two old friends have urban adventures connected to the skull of an executed French aristocrat.
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Lulu
Title: Lulu
Character: Fabio
Released: June 5, 2002
Type: Movie
It's the beginning of the bullfighting season and all paths seem to lead from the arena straight to Lulu's bar. Lulu is radiant. When she was seventeen, and went by the name of Lucien, she headed off for more convivial surroundings.
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Title: Vivement dimanche
Character: Self
Released: September 20, 1998
Type: TV
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Les Princes
Title: Les Princes
Character: Léo
Released: November 2, 1983
Type: Movie
Nara, a 30-year-old gypsy, lives with her nine-year-old daughter Zorka and her grandmother in a public housing project in the Paris region.
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Canta Gitano
Title: Canta Gitano
Character: Le premier echappé
Released: January 1, 1982
Type: Movie
A short dance performance.
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Act of Aggression
Title: Act of Aggression
Character: Le motard interrogatoire
Released: April 16, 1975
Type: Movie
After his wife and daughter are raped and killed by a motorbike gang, a man sets out to take revenge.
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Raging Fists
Title: Raging Fists
Released: February 12, 1975
Type: Movie
Tony and Nanar, two teenagers who met in reform school, are part of a gang of idle, penniless youngsters from the Paris suburbs. Together, they go to dances and plan mischief. The muse of the gang, B.B. La Brune, organizes leisure activities when she's not up to no good. Unemployed and penniless, they all dream of consumption and possession. Until the day a fight turns ugly: Tony, trying to reason with Nanar, pulls the trigger.