Cinema
I Even Met Happy Gypsies
Скупљачи перја
Aleksandar Petrović · 1967
Synopsis
In the plain of Vojvodina, Bora, a smooth-talking Roma man quick to fight, goes from village to village buying goose down. Married to Lenče, a singer older than him, he meets Tisa on the road, a very young girl who dreams of singing, and wants to tame her. But Tisa's stepfather, Mirta, is his rival in the feather trade, and the two men have divided the Roma villages of the region between them.
Context
The film was the first to show the condition of the Roma and to have them speak in their own language: most of the roles are played by Roma, and only Bekim Fehmiu, Bata Živojinović, Olivera Vučo and Mija Aleksić were professional actors. Presented in competition at Cannes in 1967, where Shirley MacLaine sat on the jury, it also received the international critics' prize there, ex aequo, and made Bekim Fehmiu an international star; Olivera Vučo subsequently sang seventy-two times at the Olympia.
Who it is for
A little under an hour and a half, in colour, in Romani and Serbian with subtitles. The living conditions shown are harsh and unidealised, and the film does not take sides with its characters.
Prizes and reception
Special Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, submitted for the Oscar, and second of the hundred Serbian films classified as cultural property in 2016.