Time of the Gypsies

Director: Emir Kusturica

1988 / 142min / 35mm

The raw materials of Time of the Gypsies come from real people and events—an child in an orphanage in Skopje, Macedonia, and a child smuggling operation in the Balkans in the 1980s, specifically—but in Kusturica’s deft hands, current events are infused with aspects of folklore and mysticism, giving this story of a Roma family and their community—and a teenage boy with telekinetic powers who’s drawn into a life of petty crime—the quality of a mesmerizing modern-day fairy tale. Winner of the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, and one of the last great films to be produced in the soon-to-disintegrate Yugoslavia.