''Time of the Gypsies'' ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Дом за вешање, Dom za vešanje, Home for Hanging) is a 1988 Yugoslav

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

directed by

Emir Kusturica Emir Kusturica ( sr-cyrl, Емир Кустурица, ; born 24 November 1954) is a Serbian film director, screenwriter, actor, film producer and musician. Kusturica has been an active filmmaker since the 1980s. He has competed at the Cannes ...

. Filmed in

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

, ''Time of the Gypsies'' tells the story of a young

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's shooting took place in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ), ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'' is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 2 ...

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

and

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. It 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. At the time of its release, it was the first film to be entirely in Romani. The film revolves around Perhan, a Romani teenager with

telekinetic Telekinesis () (alternatively called psychokinesis) is a purported psychic ability allowing an individual to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Experiments to prove the existence of telekinesis have historically been cri ...

powers and his passage from childhood to adulthood which starts in a little village in Yugoslavia and ends in the criminal underworld of

. The film deals with

magic realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical re ...

. The film's soundtrack was composed by

Goran Bregović Goran Bregović ( sr-Cyrl, Горан Бреговић; born 22 March 1950) is a recording artist born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is one of the most internationally known modern musicians and composers of the Slavic speaking countries in the ...

Plot

Perhan lives with his devoted grandmother Khatidža, his lame sister Danira and his dissolute uncle Merdžan. Khatidža possesses a level of supernatural powers (mainly healing) and Perhan himself has 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, and without a job or savings. Ahmed, the "Gypsy sheikh", comes to the village with his brothers. Merdžan 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, Khatidža is summoned to use her powers to save Ahmed's sick son, Roberto, which Khatidža does. For repayment, she proposes a deal with Ahmed - to pay for Danira's leg to be healed at a hospital in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. Perhan goes with Danira, promising his grandmother not to leave her, but Ahmed asks where will he stay and convinces him to go to

. At first Perhan wants to make money honestly, but after being beaten, tortured and 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 Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, 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. Merdžan notices, and follows him out in the rain, as the child runs away hidden under a cardboard box. Merdžan 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 - Perhan *

Bora Todorović Borivoje "Bora" Todorović ( sr-Cyrl, Боривоје "Бора" Тодоровић; 5 November 1930 – 7 July 2014) was a Serbian actor. He was the younger brother of the actress, Mira Stupica, and father of Srđan Todorović. Biography He ...

- Ahmed * Ljubica Adžović - Khatidža * Husnija Hasimovic - Uncle Merdzan * Sinolicka Trpkova - Azra * Zabit Memedov - Zabit * Elvira Sali - Danira * Suada Karisik - Dzamila * Predrag Lakovic - Ahmed's older brother * Mirsad Zulic - Zef * Ajnur Redzepi - Perhan's son * Sedrije Halim - Azra's mother Ruza * Saban Rojan - Azra's father Alija *

Branko Đurić Branko Đurić (; born 28 May 1962), also known by his nickname Đuro (Cyrillic: Ђуро), is a Bosnian actor, comedian, film director and musician, who lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Born and raised in Sarajevo, Đurić rose to prom ...

- Sadam * Marjeta Gregorac - Nurse in Ljubljana * Boris Juh - Doctor in Ljubljana * Ibro Zulic - Ramo * Advija Redzepi - * Emir Cerin - Ciro * Irfan Jagli - Irfan

Awards

At the

1989 Cannes Film Festival The 42nd Cannes Film Festival took place from 11 to 23 May 1989. West German filmmaker Wim Wenders served as jury president for the main competition. American filmmaker Steven Soderbergh won the '' Palme d'Or'', the festival's top prize, for his ...

, Emir Kusturica won the Best Director Award and the film was also nominated for a

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

(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 ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, 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 The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Trivia

Among the Roma actors that were part of the cast, was also Jadranka, daughter of Ljubica Adžović. In an interview to the newspaper l'Unità, Emir Kusturica revealed: ' ..the actor who plays the older brother Davor Dujmović">nowiki/> Davor Dujmović fell in love with the daughter adrankaof the actress who plays the grandmother Ljubica Adžović">nowiki/> Ljubica Adžović They ran off, leaving me in the middle of filming. The police searched for them in vain. Only the grandmother –a living monument, an incredible actress– knew where they had gone and allowed us to find them.'

References

External links