I Even Met Happy Gypsies -- Petrovic (1967) Video
Skuplja?i perja - Aleksandar Petrovic (1967)
"In 1967, when Skuplja?i perja was released, it attracted international acclaim and elevated the director, Aleksandar Petrovi?, to the first rank of European directors. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign film?actually won that year by Ji?í Menzel's Ost?e sledované vlaky (Closely Observed Trains)?and the same year it won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The following year it was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Mature master
Even before he achieved international success, Petrovi? was already considered to be one of the pre-eminent directors in Yugoslavia and was recognised as one of the founders of and a leading light in the Novi Film (New Film) movement that dominated Yugoslav cinema in the 1960s. His 1961 film Dvoje (Two) had paved the way for Novi Film, while Tri (Three, 1965) was widely seen as one of the most mature and accomplished films of the whole movement.
In fact, Petrovi? was one of three directors who effectively dominated Novi Film tendencies throughout the 1960s, the others being ?ivojin Pavlovi? and the much more well-known Du?an Makavejev, later to achieve international fame and some measure of lasting notoriety with his film WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1970).
The Novi Film movement did not have a specific program but can perhaps best be seen as one aspect of the major changes taking place in Yugoslav society during the 1960s. As society moved towards a greater level of democratisation and decentralisation, filmmakers too began to demand the right to greater individual artistic expression and more freedom from bureaucratic control.
They also wanted more leeway for experimentation with the form of film and in particular they wanted to be able to address the more negative aspects of their society and of human existence in general. Nevertheless, these goals were still to be realised within the context of a Socialist state, and not in opposition to it. One might look at this as an early expression of the famous "Socialism with a human face" that the Czechs were to make their own in 1968.
Roma romp
Skuplja?i perja (literally "The Feather Buyer" but more usually?and with far less elegance?translated into English as I Even Met Happy Gypsies, a reference to a line one line from a Romany song, "Djelem djelem," that we hear several times during the film) is set in the Vojvodina region of Northern Serbia?an area of great ethnic diversity. Serbs, Hungarians, Slovaks, Romanians and others all live alongside each other, and on the margins of all these communities live the Roma, who are the real subject of the film.
The central character, Bora, (played by 'the Yugoslav heart-throb' Bekim Fehmiu) is the feather buyer of the title. Bora, a Rom, lives in the town of Sombor (northeast of Novi Sad, close to the border with Hungary) and trades in goose feathers. He has divided up the territory with his main rival Mirta (Velimir ?ivojinovi?) . Bora is married, with a small posse of children, but spends most of his free time drinking, making love to other women (notably the Romany singer Lenka, played by Olivera Vu?o) gambling and generally leading a virile and macho lifestyle.
Petrovi?'s films do seem to have been largely forgotten now, and this seems to me to be a great tragedy. There is little information available about him and what there is needs to be taken with a whole handful of salt. A case in point is the description of the film given on the All Movie Guide website and reproduced in several other locations. The author of the piece, Hal Erickson, has misunderstood the movie so completely that his review cannot go unchallenged:
The Yugoslavian leading man Bekim Fehmiu plays a charismatic but mean-spirited gypsy, married to the submissive woman. The gypsy couple's various escapades end up in a desperate flight from the law... The film was shot in a near-extinct Gypsy language called Romany, requiring the film to carry subtitles even when released in Yugoslavia.
In Skuplja?i perja, Petrovi? shows us the real lives of Yugoslav Roma without idealising them in any way or showing the tiniest trace of romanticism. This is a grim and brutal life, but it also has its moments of passion and music, and the people themselves have a dignity and presence that we cannot help but respect, even if it is often difficult for an outsider to admire or comprehend. Perhaps, this is one of the best films about the Roma ever made, and, in my judgement, it is a true masterpiece of cinema." -- James Partridge, 27 November 2000
Nomadic? Australoid ...
Nomadic? Australoid parasites... you came with the Ottoman hordes, and have contributed nothing but thievery and syphilis. Antonescu was too nice.
Sukar phuro? filmo. ...
Sukar phuro? filmo... av sasto manush sa aploud akate......
Good old movie man... thank you for upload here....
I saw this film ...
I saw this film back in the 70's as a child. Then I found it very depressing, disturbing and? even disgusting, the film looked all the bleaker as I saw it on a b/w tv. Mostly I only remembered the freezer-truck brutal scene that I found quite grim. I really wanted to see this film again, so many years later, so glad I managed to track it down, I only remembered it being Yugoslav and about gypsies, of course. Truly good film! Thank you TheSDQisBack for uploading it and for the great description!
A film that I've ...
A film that I've been looking for for years - a thousand thanks for posting this - finding this film is excellent? - thanks!
