User reviews

This is the kind of movie I cannot forget. Well, to be honest, the reason why I watched it was to see my girlfriend, who suggested to watch it at her's. I wasn't really impressed by the movie and I thought it'd be another of those I'd forget about. And I wouldn't comment on it if there wouldn't be something special to it. I just keep thinking about it again and again, and I get the feeling it wasn't so boring as I thought. That's exactly what I find interesting. There are movies which you think are bad, and forget about them. There are movies where you see they are great and you never forget them. And there are movies which you think they haven't impressed you at all, but after some time you still think about them and you keep remembering them whether you like it or not. And eventually you find that they were quite good just the way they was. And so is this movie. What it wants to tell you is not the story it tells - a story which you may find uninteresting, longish, alien, of no matter to you. This film wants to give you an impression of the Gypsy way of life. And after seeing it and thinking about it, you feel like understanding the Gypsies somewhat more.

A civilization is a tree whose branches expand to the world while deeply rooted in the motherland, the one place where we cease to be a stranger. But there are eternal strangers who never belong to the place they live in, we call them Nomads, Romani or Gypsies. They have a culture, a language, a music (and how!) and while there might not be a place, there will always be a "Time of the Gypsies".

On Youtube, an Internet user said about that scene where a devastated Perhan drowns his sorrow in booze and music: "I don't understand what he's singing but it's like I understand everything." That's exactly how emotionally affecting Emir Kusturica's movies are and his 1988 masterpiece that won the Cannes Prize for Best Directing is no exception. Kusturica's movies are culturally specific but universally cathartic. Universal to a certain extent... even if it's set somewhere in Yugoslavia, this is a film about the gypsies, perhaps the most misunderstood if not disdained people on Earth, connected to many infamous caricatures from stealing chicken to prostitution.

And it says a lot when the main character is the fruit of the passion between a Slovenian soldier and a gypsy mother who died after giving birth to his sister a few years later. Perhan, to name him... and to call a spade a spade, is a bastard, but Kusturica almost gives this word a touch of nobility, as if it captured the existential status of gypsies, they have traditions and pride but they don't know where they're from, they belong to the present, and their greatest tragedy is to keep on longing for a past so unknown and so far it is deemed to carry a shadow of mystery. Perhan is mysterious in his own way, a young and nerdy insecure boy with a talent for accordion, a turkey for a companion and a telekinetic power.

He was raised by his grandmother, the kind of stereotypical gypsy woman whom you'd give her palm and trust whatever she says about your future but there's nothing cliché about her, she's perhaps one of the most loving and endearing mother figures from any movie, she drinks, she smokes, forgives her depraved son and love her grandchildren. Ljubica Adzovic gives the kind of performances that always gets Oscar nods, it's a disgrace that she didn't win anything at Cannes, or maybe she's just too authentic for that. Still, she's as pivotal to the film as she is in Perhan's life. Perhan who falls in love with Azra but can't marry her because her mother wouldn't give her daughter's hand to a bastard. This prompts Perhan to become someone and he promises the mother that she'll soon kiss his feet.

Circumstances help him when the grandmother cures the son of a rich man named Ahmed (Bora Todorovic, the band leader in "Underground"). Ahmed promises to take Perhan under his protections and takes his sister to a hospital in Slovenia, so she can be cured from a severe leg condition. But the film isn't much about that story than it is about the young boy who encapsulates the exhilaration and tragedy of being a gypsy. As a bastard, he's twice an outcast and ostracized in his own community, forcing him to resort to crime in order to win quick cash and become respected. And with his glasses and nerdy smile, Dujmovic bears a striking resemblance with Dustin Hoffman in "Papillon" or "Straw Dogs" while as the film progresses, his hair grow and he looks more like Hoffman or a Pacino in their prime, with that intensity in the eyes and that oddly charismatic vulnerability.

The actor committed suicide in 1999, was it drugs? The Yugoslavian tragedy? Or some secret demons he took to the grave? Whatever it was, I suspect he carried that early enough so it could translate into this performance, one of the greatest performances from a relatively unknown actor, and perhaps the most intense performance in any Kusturica film. Dujmovic is the first reason to enjoy the film or perhaps the second after the music, I saw this film 25 years ago, and I remember I was mesmerized by the themes from Goran Bergovic. I never forgot the scene where they were all floating in the river, following some ancestral ritual and the one where Perhan got drunk after realizing he would also have a bastard as a son. These two emotional peaks illustrate gypsies' predestination for parties because there's so much melancholy and sadness one would rather try to forget them.

And yet the film doesn't sugarcoat the other aspects such as prostitution or human traffic, it exposes them with some sort of cynicism on the surface but in reality a way to show that once you don't have rules, you do with what you have at hands and you're the one to set your own limitations or code of honor. The film doesn't show gypsies enjoying begging or stealing or selling children, but it finds a way to show that pride is a variable parameter, a bit like in "The Godfather" when you disdain Mafia but you understand why it exists. And for a culture torn between the European accordion and Oriental tunes waltz (I come from North Africa, I can tell you their dances isn't different from ours), nothing surprises me anymore.

That's who the Gypsies are, people at the crossroads of the Western and Oriental world, a marriage never bound to happen but worthy of a celebration, the film opens and ends with Kusturica's iconic leitmotif of a wedding leading to a tragedy, and yet a rebirth, a symbol reprised in his "Underground". Kusturica has a unique talent to immerse you into the depths of a civilization, as if we were the objects Perhan could move with his simple wizardry, this might be an allegory of Kusturica power. It's all about moving us and making us move at the beat of a trumpet ... or fly like his smiling brides.

In Russia we have a fine 300 minutes (without kidding) DVD release of the movie (the "director's cut"?). It has its moments. The first part is hilarious and witty. The second one is absurd and insane. The third is depressing and scary. The forth is enterprising and weird. The last one is violent and tragic. To crown it all, the only reason that this feature is an outsider (it is not in IMDb top 250) seems to be the following: not many people saw it.

It doesn't look like fiction. It feels quite gritty and has very adult topics. The Gypsies look and act like Gypsies (well, at least to my taste and knowledge). There was once a serial on Russian TV called "Karmelita", where the Gypsies were shown civilized, snobbish, stylish in their dressing, good-looking, etc. They were talking and talking (in pure Russian, of course, phonetically perfect), showing a little bit more emotion than lamas (sorry my exaggeration). Personally, very thankful to my relatives that they did not spend their precious watching that never ending fiction. The title song in that "Gypsy" serial was sung by Mr Nikolay Baskov (a real "Gypsy" with blond hair). It lasted as long as 200+ parts mixed with good portion of commercials. Instead of prolonged showing of the "epic" "Karmelita" our TV should have shown "Dom za vesanje". On the other hand, they would have spoiled the whole movie by pushing commercials into it. So, let the matter rest.

The only really bad thing about "Dom za vesanje" movie seems to be the way of its DVD presentation: after the end of each part there is a kind of sketch of the next one before the credits roll over. These spoilers are not enjoyable.

Still it also has some minor drawbacks. To me they are camera-work and the absence of powerful scenery shots, i.e. the lack of the contrast and the ability to see what happens in good detail.

An 8 for this poesy of human existence in hellish surroundings will do. Thank you for attention.

This movie shines as an example of pure art in cinema. So powerful with symbolism and story telling, "Time of Gypsies" delivers amazing performances on acting, settings, musical scores, and overall directing.

In year 1988, this movie was one of the most awaited films in the Istanbul International Film Festival. I was one of the lucky ones who had a ticket for the film. When the show time arrived, it was obvious that there was a problem since the film did not started. A lady from the festival committee came to the stage announcing their appology and explaining what the problem was; they were expecting the copy of the film from the its distributor in USA. Unfortunately there was a logistics problem, so they had to get it directly from Yugoslavia. When the festival organisation put their Yugoslavian translators at work they did not understand which language it was! And a cleaning lady, who was an actual gypsy figured out that the movie was in Gypsy language. So it was not possible to translate it for the festival.

So they offered an apology and refund in case anybody did not want to watch it without subtitles.

Nobody left the theatre. We watched the movie without understanding a word. But, at the end there was a standing ovation at the theatre went on for a couple of minutes.

Dom za vesanje is not a movie that an average viewer can comprehend thoroughly, but this doesn't change the fact that it's a masterpiece. Emir Kusturica's storytelling requires some talent, intelligence, and flawless attention to follow and understand correctly, nonetheless it's absolutely unique and fantastic. I would never ever have thought I'd enjoy seeing the world through Yugoslavian gypsies' eyes, but it turned out to be possible so long as it's Kusturica who opens the window. Goran Bregovic's adorable tunes suit the movie perfectly fine too. This movie was one of those that strengthened my opinion which states European movies are a billion times better than American movies. Thanks to Kusturica and Bregovic for producing such a beauty. A perfect 10 for the cast as well.

I'm glad I was bored on a Friday night and decided to browse the foreign film section. I randomly picked Time of the Gypsies, and now it is my favorite. The soundtrack, as well as the movie, is amazing. This film is unique in almost every aspect. It was moving without being too gushy or fake--I highly recommend seeing it. The other commentees have said pretty much everything else about this film in an nicely eloquent way, so I feel I need not elaborate. :)

This is one of my most favourite movies. I don't know if I can say it was the best movie I ever saw. It's amazing to see how talented these amateur actors are and how beautiful the mis en scene is. I always thought about Time of the Gypsies as a kind of answer to the Latin American Magic Realism. Kusturica seems to know which subject requires which specific aesthetic style.

The Gypsies in Yugoslavia live in their traditional world as they live in the bizarre modernity of European reality. The clash of these two worlds is what so many so called European auteur directors thematized since the 1960's. Kusturica seems to be very conscious of these art cinema tradition, but he knows also which people he portraits. The East European Gypsies are in a very essential way still nomads, constantly shifting between different realities:the world of dreams, their own traditions, their myths, rituals and beliefs and the hybrid spaces of European criminality. Kusturica portrays these Gypsy worlds with a story that is both modern but also almost like a fairy tale. It is this very mixture that makes this movie brilliant and a must see.

In 1933 Spanish poet and theater director Federico Garcia Lorca gave a lecture in Buenos Aires titled "Play and Theory of the Duende" in which he addressed the fiery spirit, the 'duende', behind what makes great performance stir the emotions: "The duende, then, is a power, not a work. It is a struggle, not a thought. I have heard an old maestro of the guitar say, "The duende is not in the throat; the duende climbs up inside you, from the soles of the feet.' Meaning this: it is not a question of ability, but of true, living style, of blood, of the most ancient culture, of spontaneous creation."

So okay, Kusturica has mostly come and gone by now. But for a while he really tapped into a valuable duende. I don't know how much of that translates overseas as anything more than feisty craziness, but for those of us here at least he stirred passions that go back in time. He communicated something of the very fabric of our world.

So yes, a living style. Spontaneous creation. Meaning an exaggerated depiction; but one rooted in a recognizable reality, in ancient culture. Reckless people, who consume their beings with spontaneous love or song; the Balkans, meant broadly as a peoples whose common life and toll under Ottoman rule brought them so close, wrote ourselves into this worldview long before Kusturica. Like Goran Bregovic collected old folk songs into new renditions for these films, Kusturica merely translated into cultural images. But oh so well.

Τhis is why Kusturica really spoke to common people here. He reminded them, yes with so much feisty craziness, about a struggle - not a thought - about a life they instinctively have known from blood; so hard that sometimes it makes the eyes well up with tears of joy. About a woe so deep it can only be expressed with dance or a burning cigarette to the arm. About something inexplicable that turns the soul upside down.

Two paths in life then as I see it, both valuable; we should strive to be either Zorbas or Buddhas. That is to say, to either grasp life till it hurts or dispassionately let go. It's about living life fully in the flow of it, and we either vigorously swim or we observe how it all flows away. Everything else is really half-assed stuff, merely trying to stay afloat. Kusturica made films about Zorbas.

All this is well. But if we have perhaps invested part of ourselves in cinema, the images behind, Kusturica, especially here, is a real joy to behold. There was Tarkovsky, who inspired him so much; his stare was austere like those lean Christs we find in Orthodox icons. With Kusturica, Tarkovsky's camera becomes magical song, embodying with ardor of life the joyous sadness of a world turned upside down - so much in the film is about things askew, a house suspended in the air, a man hanging himself from a bell, the image of an inverted Christ in the end.

So one masterful touch is the cinematic flow. The other is how the flow encompasses an entire life; we have a kid who grows up to see how everything in life breaks, a grownup - as this kid - who has already resigned himself to the fact and is broken himself beyond salvation, a young mother who gives birth and dies like the dead mother who is only hearsay now, a second Perhan who will grow up with only hearsay of that young mother but with a father who came back to him. Fascinating stuff, most importantly because the symbolism is not a full circle, neat, precise, but messy, rugged with life.

This is good stuff. It is just not-important enough - in the academic sense - to be really beautiful, and just incomplete enough to allow ourselves to pour into it.

A friend recommended this film to me when I asked her for films dealing with death and spirituality. After seeing the film, the connections are loose, especially when compared to how sentimentally American films deal with themes of death and hardship. The landscape, the characters and just about every visual moment in the film was like nothing I'd ever seen before. What an imaginitive, gutsy guy the director is. Officially one of my favorites!

Based on a 1985 story about the kidnapping of hundreds of Gypsy children by Yugoslavs who sold them to Americans and Italians, Emir Kusturica's The Time of the Gypsies is the story of an orphaned boy who leaves his home and falls prey to ruthless exploiters of children. The film was written by Gordan Mihic and photographed by Vilko Filac and contains an entrancing score by Goran Bregovic. It received a five-minute standing ovation at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival where Kusturica won the award for Best Director, yet unfortunately provides a view of the Romas that simply reinforces stereotypes about the culture.

Perhan (Davor Dujmovic) is an idealistic young man who is adept at telekinesis (the ability to move objects without touching them). He lives just outside of Skopje with his grandmother Hatidja (Ljubica Adzovic), his uncle Merdjan (Husnija Hasimovic), and his sister Danira (Elvira Sali) who suffers from a bone disease. The film strongly emphasizes the traditional values of Gypsy culture personified by the warm and caring grandmother whose healing powers are well known to the village. The main theme of the film is the punishment meted out by the spirits to Perhan when he moves away from these values. Perhan is in love with a village girl named Azra (Sinolicka Trpkova) but his attempts to marry her are rejected by her stern mother because he lacks money, uncharacteristically placing material wealth over spiritual values.

Determined to be considered worthy of marrying Azra, Perhan is easy prey for Ahmed, a criminal originally from the village, who has become rich by selling children to Italians and forcing them to beg and steal for him. Ahmed comes to his grandmother for help for his dying son and, when she restores his son to health, demands that Ahmed pay for a much needed operation for Danira. After he vows to pay for an operation and brings Danira and Perhan to Ljubliana, Perhan soon discovers his true way of life when Ahmed stops to collect young people along the way. The message that what appears good may be hiding darker intent is symbolized by Danira's vision of the spirit of her dead mother who has come to warn her of impending evil.

At first unwilling to earn money dishonestly, Perhan soon discards his idealism for the pursuit of money and goes into business with Ahmed, recruiting children for sale and putting beggars to work collecting money. In the process, Perhan becomes as ruthless and unforgiving as Ahmed when, after Ahmed suffers a stroke, he takes over the business. I was drawn into the characters and identified with them, especially Perhan, but his abrupt shift into a heartless mobster seemed unmotivated and unconvincing. On a visit home, he rejects Azra for becoming pregnant while he was away, even though she insists that the baby is his. As Perhan continues to reject the values of the culture that he was raised on, his misfortunes multiply and the ending delivers a sad but inevitable lesson that does not leave us with much hope.

Time of the Gypsies dazzles us with moving cans, and spoons climbing up the wall but left me with little true understanding of the Romani culture. Kusturica shows them as lying, thieving, and whoring, but never asks about the racism in society that led them to their way of life, or talks about the sixty to eighty percent unemployment rate for Gypsies in Central Europe. While Time of the Gypsies contains an often-enchanting magical realism and its story about the corruption of innocence has universal appeal, I left the film feeling empty and dissatisfied.

Perhan is a teenage gypsy boy with telekinetic powers. A wealthy gypsy, Ahmed, visits the village and promises to get Perhan's sister the medical treatment she needs if they go with him to Italy. Perhan soon discovers that Ahmed's business activities are quite shady and he is soon lured into Ahmed's world.

Highly rated but directed by Emir Kusturica, whose movies seem to be highly rated regardless of their quality. 'Underground' deserves its kudos - it is genuinely brilliant - but I found 'Black Cat, White Cat' and 'Arizona Dream' quite empty, more style than substance, and the latter quite pretentious.

Unfortunately, 'Time of the Gypsies' falls more in the category of the latter two than of 'Underground'. Like those two this film is full of irritating characters, thus limiting your engagement level. Even Perhan, the "hero" of the story, isn't entirely likeable.

The plot and editing don't help either. The film takes forever to go anywhere and when it does it's still not that interesting. For the most part the film just drifts. More focus and a culling of many unnecessary scenes would have helped a lot.

There are some interesting scenes and sub-plots but these just lure you into thinking that the film is about to kick up a gear but then it goes back to circling the drain.

Dull and disappointing.

'Time of the Gypsies' is a big, full movie.

It is full in the way a magic realism novel is full, with its intergenerational cast of characters; its vivid sense of place, the weather and community life, where private is always public, where joy and tragedy are inextricable; where magic, dream and delusion are indistinguishable.

It is full in the Fellini sense, with its grand, often hallucinatory, set pieces; its profusion of grotesques; its bursting compression of many plots; its general noisiness.

It is one film containing many simultaneous films (a gangster film; a surreal road movie; a romantic comedy; a rites-of-passage; a Christian allegory).

It somehow feels a little thin, like a tapestry of chunks from a massive novel. It is certainly a prime example of retrospective dating - at the time it seemed a masterpiece; over a decade on, it's pastiche Kusturica.

When I see a Kusturica film, I see the magic of Fellini but with a sinister edge. His characters may be crude and immorally incorrect, but interesting enough as an observation piece that represents the madness of life. All this done through an epic journey taken by the young and shy Perhan, who discovers the crudeness of live that alters his whole believes and existence. The film plays like an opera, but without the soap, making it another Kusturica masterpiece that mixes the real with the bizarre.

Surreal hillarious world of Kusturica, enjoy! Remarkable acting from non-proffesional actors, and great score by Bregovic.

We are all gypsies in a way. Good old Emir. Together with "When father was away on business" my favourite movies of him.

A hauntingly beautiful, tragic, and ultimately spiritual movie. This is "magic realism" put to the highest use. The music is very moving. Definitely not for the usual American-Hollywood audience, but I mean that as a compliment. It has value as a documentary of the Rom lifestyle in Europe and elsewhere. There's considerable irony in the fact that Yugoslavia descended into ethnic genocide and disintegrated since this movie was made -- raising the question of what precisely is this "civilization" that feels so threatened by Gypsies.

Surreal, amazing and absorbing, there are not enough words to explain how great this movie is. I watched it late night on ITV in London from 2am to 4am only to catch a train the next day to Kent, but i don't regreat one moment of it. Am not even going to bother telling you what the film is about, because it really is one of those stories thats best kept to oneslf. Its like a good memory you keep to yourself. I have not seen any of the other Emir Kusturica films, but i will highly recommend this movie for all those that love fantasy, film and a good story.

Dom za vesanje: Approved

This is the first feature film shot entirely in the Romany language, and I was forced to watch the domestic film with English subtitles, because I did not understand almost anything without it. Except for cursing, of course. The film received five-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and Kusturica won the Best Director award. Totally deserved, because this surreal drama is probably his life's achievement. The somewhat fairy-tale atmosphere of this movie totally hypnotized me and over two hours flew by in a moment. A special acknowledgment should be given to the cast, as its major part consists of amateurs with only a few professional actors. In particular, I have to single out the scene of St. George celebration on the river, which is one of the most impressive movie scenes I've ever seen in my life, and which would probably have provided Academy Award to this film, if it was an American movie.

10/10

A large amount to take in but worth every moment this gypsy tale produces a show-of-shows where lifting a burning house seems normal with outstanding cast, set and camera leading you through nothing short of life on their edge.

This film is listed on IMDB's Top50 Highest Rated Comedies, but it's actually not a comedy at all. The first 20 mins have funny moments, the rest is like a Greek tragedy, one miserable event after another, human misery and exploitation of the worst kind. Is it well directed? Yes. And beautifully shot. And the actors did a good job. But this is no comedy - it's a heavily dramatic movie, with a very sad story. If you are looking for an actual comedy, like I was, don't waste your time.