French filmmaker Tony Gatlif, one of cinema's leading chroniclers of Romani culture and the director of Gadjo Dilo, died on Wednesday in the southern French city of Arles at the age of 77, his family said on Friday.
The director, screenwriter and composer died from a health problem while he was working on a historical film, according to his family.
Gatlif was born in Algiers in 1948 and directed around twenty films over his career. He gained international recognition with Gadjo Dilo (released in some markets as The Crazy Stranger), starring Romain Duris and Romanian actress Rona Hartner.
The film, shot in Romania, follows a young Frenchman who travels the country searching for a Romani singer, and is shaped throughout by music and Roma culture. Much of Gatlif's filmography was closely tied to the history, music and living conditions of Romani communities.
A career built on music and migration
In Vengo (2000), a Spanish, French, German and Japanese co-production filmed in Andalusia, Gatlif worked with Spanish performers including Antonio Canales and Antonio Dechent, and collaborated on the screenplay with David Trueba. The film won a Cesar award, the top French film prize, for best original music.
In 2004, Gatlif won the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Exils, which follows two young French people of Algerian descent as they travel to Algeria. He also addressed the genocide of the Roma people during the Second World War in Korkoro (also released as Liberte), from 2009.
Early life and influences
Gatlif, whose original name was Michel Dahmani, was the son of a Kabyle father and a Romani mother. He arrived in France in 1962, where he began his career as an actor before moving behind the camera. He built a body of work centred on communities, cultures and characters who, in his own words, lived on the margins.
French Culture Minister Catherine Pegard wrote on X that Gatlif had a taste for out-of-the-way paths, borders that dissolve, and lives to which little attention is paid. She added that he filmed music, movement, exile and freedom with an energy that belonged only to him.
His final film
Gatlif's last film, Ange, was released in 2025 and starred Arthur H, Maria de Medeiros and Mathieu Amalric.
