''I Even Met Happy Gypsies'' () is a 1967 Yugoslav film by Serbian director Aleksandar Petrović. The film is centered on

Roma people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , ...

's life in a village in northern

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

, but it also deals with other themes such as love, ethnic and social relationships. Beside

Bekim Fehmiu Bekim Fehmiu (; ; 1 June 1936 – 15 June 2010) was a Yugoslavian theater and film actor. He was the first Eastern European actor to star in Hollywood during the Cold War, and one of the internationally best-known ethnic Albanian actors. ...

, Olivera Vučo,

Bata Živojinović Velimir "Bata" Živojinović ( sr-Cyrl, Велимир "Бата" Живојиновић; 5 June 1933 – 22 May 2016) was a Yugoslav and Serbian actor and politician. He appeared in more than 340 films and TV series, and is regarded as one of ...

and Mija Aleksić, film features a cast of Roma actors speaking the

Romani language Romani ( ; also Romanes , Romany, Roma; ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani people. The largest of these are Vlax Romani language, Vlax Romani (about 500,000 speakers), Balkan Romani (600,000), and Sinte Roma ...

. ''I Even Met Happy Gypsies'' is considered one of the best films of the Black Wave in

Yugoslav cinema The Cinema of Yugoslavia refers to the film industry and cinematic output of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which existed from 1945 until it disintegrated into several independent nations in the early 1990s. Yugoslavia was ...

Plot summary

The protagonist, Beli Bora Perjar, is a charming but mean-spirited

gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

, while his former girlfriend, the '' kafana'' singer Lenče, is submissive. Bora is in love with the younger Tisa, who is being offered in marriage by her step-father. The two get themselves in trouble and eventually have to flee. Tisa rejects her husband and she and Bora get married in the church. Tisa tries to get to

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, while Bora stabs a man in a knife fight. They are both, therefore, exiled from their Roma camp, yet their adventures continue.

Cast

as Beli Bora Perjar * Olivera Vučo as Lenče *

as Mirta * Gordana Jovanović as Tisa * Mija Aleksić as Pavle Rest of cast listed alphabetically: * Severin Bijelić as Bigoted man * Stojan Dečermić as Hladnjača driver 1 * Milivoje Đorđević as Sandor * Rahela Ferari as Igumanija * Etelka Filipovski as Bora's wife * Milorad Jovanović as Toni * Zoran Longinović as Islednik 1 * Branislav-Ciga Milenković * Božidar Pavičević-Longa as Hladnjača driver 2 * Velizar Petrović * Djordje Pura as Islednik 2 * Nina Sajin *

Milivoje Tomić Milivoje "Mića" Tomić (10 February 1920 – 23 August 2000) was a Serbian actor. Tomić won numerous awards during his career, including the " Pavle Vuisic" Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Selected filmography References External lin ...

as Romanian * Janez Vrhovec as judge

Reception

The film was the most popular film in Belgrade for the year with 400,000 admissions, compared to an average of 60,000.

Awards

At the 1967 Cannes Film Festival it was nominated for the

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 ...

and won the Special Grand Prize of the Jury and the

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for ''Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique'') is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the wor ...

Prize. The film was nominated for the 1967

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

(event in April 1968) and for the

Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a Golden Globe Award presented by Dick Clark Productions to reward theatrically-released feature film not in the English language. It was first introduced at the 7th Golden Globe Awards f ...

also won a Golden Arena award for Best Actor at the 1967

Pula Film Festival Pula Film Festival () is an annual Croatian film festival, established in 1954. It is held in a Roman amphitheater known as the Pula Arena. Pula Film Festival is the oldest Croatian film festival and is usually held in the summer, in July or Aug ...

for his portrayal of Mirta.

References

External links