French filmmaker of Algerian origin Tony Gatlif, a defining voice in cinema about Roma culture, died at 77 in Arles, in southern France, while working on a historical film. His family confirmed the news on September 4 to the AFP news agency, as reported by Excélsior.
According to El País, Gatlif was born Michel Dahmani on September 10, 1948, in Algiers, the son of a Kabyle father and a Roma mother. After years living as a wanderer, he made his way to France, where he discovered theater and later cinema. From 1975, he directed 25 films, using the camera to bring a stateless people, the Romani, to the fore alongside the music through which they tell their history. That portrait of those who live on society's margins made him a touchstone of social cinema, and his death reverberated in Mexican media.
His best-known film, The Crazy Stranger (Gadjo Dilo, 1997), is a tribute to Roma music, which the director himself described as "a music that cries out the fear and pain of a people whose soul aches." The film follows a young Frenchman, played by Romain Duris, who searches for a singer and ends up in a Roma camp in Romania. Two of his films were honored at Cannes: Latcho Drom (1992), recognized in the Un Certain Regard section, and Exils (2004), winner of the Best Director prize. In Spain he shot his first feature, Corre Gitano (1982), alongside flamenco dancer Mario Maya, and later Vengo (2000), with Antonio Canales; in Djam (2017) he brought Greek rebetiko to the screen.
His final feature, Ange, premiered in 2025 and stands as his last farewell on screen. His family bid him goodbye with a message that underscored his generosity and love of music, closing with Latcho Drom, the expression that in the Roma language means safe journey. What remains is his filmography, five decades of work, as a gateway into Roma culture.
This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.