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''Time of the Gypsies'' ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Дом за вешање, Dom za vešanje, Home for Hanging) is a 1988 Yugoslav coming-of-age fantasy crime drama directed by Emir Kusturica. Filmed in
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
and Serbo-Croatian, ''Time of the Gypsies'' tells the story of a young
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
man with magical powers who is tricked into engaging in petty crime. It is widely considered to be one of Kusturica's best films. The film was recorded in Sarajevo, Skopje and Milan, by the Forum Sarajevo. The film was selected as the Yugoslav entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the
62nd Academy Awards The 62nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1989 and took place on March 26, 1990, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p. ...
, but was not accepted as a nominee.Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The film revolves around Perhan, a Romani teenager with telekinetic powers and his passage from childhood to adulthood which starts in a little village in Yugoslavia and ends in the criminal underworld of Milan. The film deals with magic realism. The film's soundtrack was composed by Goran Bregović.


Plot

Perhan lives with his devoted grandmother Khatidza, his lame sister Danira and his dissolute uncle Merdzan. Khatidza possesses a level of supernatural powers (mainly healing) and Perhan himself inherited some minor telekinetic abilities. He wants to marry a girl named Azra, but her mother will not allow it, as Perhan is the illegitimate son of a Slovenian soldier who had an affair with Perhan's late mother. Ahmed, the "Gypsy sheik," comes to the village with his brothers. Merdzan loses his clothes playing cards with Ahmed's brothers, and comes home desperate for money so that he can repay. It is raining and not finding any money, he accuses the grandmother of hiding the money from him and lifts the frame of the house up (using a rope and a truck), so that it is suspended in mid-air as the rain comes down on Perhan, his grandmother and Danira. Very soon after, Khatidza is summoned to use her powers to save Ahmed's sick son, Roberto, which Khatidza does. For repayment, she proposes a deal with Ahmed - to pay for Danira's leg to be healed at a hospital in Ljubljana. Perhan goes with Danira, promising his grandmother not to leave her, but Ahmed asks where will he stay and convinces him to go to Milan. At first Perhan wants to make money honestly, but after being dragged through the mud, Perhan begins stealing and squirreling money away in a shack. After being double-crossed by his brother Sadam, Ahmed appoints Perhan boss of the operation. Now relatively rich, Perhan goes home, where he is enraged to find Azra is pregnant. Perhan refuses to believe that the baby is his. They marry with the condition that she would sell the baby. Perhan is also disappointed to find that the house Ahmed promised to build him is not being built at all, and that Danira was not operated on, but forced to be a beggar as part of Ahmed's money operation. On their wedding night, Azra tells him the child is theirs, and was conceived when they made love on the Feast of St George. Still wearing her wedding dress, Azra dies after giving birth to a boy while levitating mid-air (a sign that the boy, as he inherited the powers, is indeed Perhan's). Because Ahmed leaves with the baby, which we discover later is also named Perhan, he is raised by Ahmed's crew. After four years of searching, Perhan reunites with Danira in Rome, who leads him to Perhan Jr., whom Perhan now accepts as his child. Perhan drops the children off at the train station, promising to meet up with them after buying an accordion for his son and a present (sponges) for grandmother. The boy tells him he is mad at him because he will not return, and he will not get an accordion. Perhan assures him he will, "Cross my gypsy heart," but immediately runs out of the station to settle the score with Ahmed, who is about to be married. Perhan arrives at the wedding and kills Ahmed with a fork, using his telekinetic powers. He also kills one of Ahmed's brothers, but he is in turn killed by Ahmed's new wife. At the funeral, the grandmother passes out drinks to everyone and Perhan Jr. goes outside the house, peers through the window at his dead father, breaks the glass and steals the golden coins put on his father's eyes. Merdzan notices, and follows him out in the rain, as the child runs away hidden under a cardboard box. Merdzan is about to catch him up and pick up the board, but seems to have second thoughts, stops, and starts running toward the nearby church.


Cast

*
Davor Dujmović Davor Dujmović (20 September 1969 – 31 May 1999) was a Yugoslavian actor best known for his memorable roles in Emir Kusturica's movies as Mirza in ''When Father Was Away on Business'', Perhan in ''Time of the Gypsies'' and Bata in ''Undergroun ...
- Perhan * Bora Todorović - Ahmed *Ljubica Adžović - Khatidza


Awards

At the
1989 Cannes Film Festival The 42nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 23 May 1989. The Palme d'Or went to ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' by Steven Soderbergh. The festival opened with ''New York Stories'', anthology film directed by Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, ...
, Emir Kusturica won the
Best Director Award Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporation, ...
and the film was also nominated for a Palme d'Or (Golden Palm). At the
26th Guldbagge Awards The 26th Guldbagge Awards ceremony, presented by the Swedish Film Institute, honored the best Swedish films of 1990, and took place on 11 February 1991. ''Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg'' directed by Kjell Grede was presented with the award for Be ...
in
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, it won the award for Best Foreign Film. In addition, ''Time of the Gypsies'' was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 1990 César Awards in France.


See also

*
List of Yugoslav films This is a list of the most notable Yugoslav cinema films. 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s See also * List of Bosnia and Herzegovina films *List of Croatian films * List of Macedonian films * List of Montenegrin films ...
* Films about immigration to Italy * List of submissions to the 62nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film * List of Yugoslav submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film * Romani people in Serbia *
Romani people in Italy Roma have been living in Italy since the 15th century. The Sinti, who regard themselves as a subgroup distinct from the Roma, arrived from the north. Other Romani groups migrated from the Balkans and settled in Southern Italy and Central Italy. F ...


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Time Of The Gypsies 1988 films 1988 comedy-drama films Magic realism films Films directed by Emir Kusturica Films scored by Goran Bregović Yugoslav fantasy films Romani culture Romani-language films 1988 fantasy films Serbo-Croatian-language films Serbian fantasy films Italian fantasy films 1980s Italian-language films Serbian comedy-drama films British comedy-drama films Films set in Milan Best Foreign Film Guldbagge Award winners Films about immigration to Italy Columbia Pictures films Films set in Serbia Films set in Yugoslavia Films about telekinesis Films about Romani people 1980s British films 1980s Italian films