Time of the Gypsies
Дом за вешање Dom za vešanje Time of the Gypsies | |
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Directed by | Emir Kusturica |
Written by | Emir Kusturica Gordan Mihić |
Produced by | Mirza Pašić Harry Saltzman |
Starring | Davor Dujmović Bora Todorović Ljubica Adžović |
Cinematography | Vilko Filač |
Edited by | Andrija Zafranović |
Music by | Goran Bregović |
Production company | Forum Sarajevo |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 140 minutes |
Countries | Yugoslavia Italy |
Languages | Romani Serbo-Croatian Italian |
Time of the Gypsies (
The film revolves around Perhan, a Romani teenager with
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. 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 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
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. 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 - Ahmed
- Ljubica Adžović - Khatidža
Awards
At the
See also
- List of Yugoslav 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
References
- ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Time of the Gypsies". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
- ^ "Dom za vesanje (1989)". Swedish Film Institute. 16 March 2014.