THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 20th IFFK International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) will explore the fiercely emotive oeuvre of French filmmaker Tony Gatlif through a showcase of selected works.
The movies that will be screened in the “Contemporary Master” category are Gadjo Dilo (1997), Je suis né d'une cigogne (1998), Swing(2001), Exils (2004) and Transylvania (2006).
Gatlif’s muses are the world’s outcasts and dehumanised – from the denizens of Parisian ghettos, to exiles and immigrants far from home and, closest to his heart, the Romany people (better known through the politically charged exonym ‘Gypsies’).
The lives, trials and traditions of the nomadic Roma – from whom he is partially descended – are a regular feature.
In Gadjo Dilo (Crazy Gadjo), Gatlif has the companion piece to his magnum opus – Latcho Drom, the 1992-lyrical tribute to Roma music in which he traced its journey from Rajasthan to Romania, Hungary and the Mediterranean. In Gadjo Dilo, he follows an outsider who enters the Roma world in search of a melody.
His next feature Je suis né d'une cigogne (Children of the Stork) deals with themes of displacement and searches for sparks of humanity and humour in the face of even the most trying circumstances.
With Exils, Gatlif retrains his eye on the bonds of music and dance that binds disparate cultures bound together. This time, he goes back to his own roots in Algeria, tracking two committed bohemians whose road trip to their native land becomes a spiritual expedition.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
