8 novembre > SALA 1 ore 20

France, Switzerland – 2021 – colore – 100’

CREDITS

Direction: Tony Gatlif

Screenplay: Tony Gatlif

Cinematography: Patrick Ghiringhelli

Editing: Monique Dartonne 

Original Music: Karoline Rose Sun, Nicolas Reyes, Manero, Delphine Mantoulet, Tony Gatlif

Costumes: Catherine Rigault

Cast: David Murgia, Slimane Dazi, Karoline Rose Sun, Suzanne Aubert, Lyes Ouzeri, Romain Carbuccia, Morgan Deschamps, Clément Bouchet, Didier Bourguignon

Producers: Tony Gatlif  in coproduction with Maya Kamila Hoffmann

Production: Princes Production in coproduction with Luma

World Sales: Les Films du Losange

SYNOPSIS

Ajuvenile tribunal sends Tom Medina to Camargue, a region in France’s deep south, into the care of Ulysse, a kindhearted man who lives in harmony with nature. Inhabited by visions, fascinated by bulls and horses, Tom becomes an apprentice gardian, under Ulysse’s guidance. He gives up stealing, is hungry for knowledge, and aspires to change. Revolted by the unwavering hostility he faces, Tom continues to battle his destiny. Then he crosses paths with Suzanne…

THE DIRECTOR: TONY GATLIF

Born September 10, 1948 in Algiers, Tony Gatlif leaves Algeria in the late 1960s. One evening in 1966, he decided to meet his idol, Michel Simon, who wrote a recommendation to the attention of his manager. That’s why Tony Gatlif includes a drama class. In 1978 he shot La Terre au ventre that evokes the war of Algeria. But it is Les Princes who reveals Tony Gatlif. In 1992, Tony Gatlif shot Latcho Drom (Safe journey), a true hymn to Gypsy music. In 1997, Gadjo Dilo describes the arrival in a Gypsy village in Romania of a young “Gadjo” (foreign language ROM), in search of a singer missing. The movie knows the public and critical acclaim in France as abroad. In 2004, the filmmaker takes the viewer on a journey throughout Andalusia and the Maghreb, with Exils where music, full character, guides the steps of the protagonists. The film won the Award for Best Director at Cannes. In 2010 released his next film Liberté (Korkoro), which tells for the first time the history of the internment of gypsies in France. 2012 was the year of Indignados, a documentary about the riots throughout Europe, which was screened at the Berlinale and Lecce, followed by Geronimo (2014) and Djam (2017).

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“Tom Medina is the closest to my own story of any of my movies, but it’s not autobiographical. I don’t tell my life story in my films. That bores me. I am inspired by real events that happened to me. The starting-point for this film is the educator who helped me when I was on the streets in Paris after fleeing Algeria in the 1960s. I was sent to a home, then a reform school. I had the good fortune to meet an educator…

Superstition, magic, demons—the whole film is built on that. My mother was a bit of a witch. A healer, perhaps. She healed people in the neighborhood. She gave me lots of undrinkable mixtures as remedies. I was fearless. I’d take risks, I’d flirt with death. I’d be brought home, bloody and unconscious, and my mother would heal me. In the movie, Tom Medina is very scared of demons and attracted to magic.

The white bull represents a threatening spirit, but it also symbolizes strength. Tom Medina wants to fight it. He wants to pit himself against the force of an animal, his version of Melville’s white whale. I filmed the bull as if it were a positive character, not a demon or dangerous beast. It’s a being that guides Tom Medina, not an enemy that must be fought, as he allows himself to believe.”

FILMOGRAPHY

1975 La tête en ruines

1978 La terre au ventre

1981 Canta gitano (short)

1982 Les princes (Corre Gitano)

1985 Rue du départ (The way out)

1988 Pleure pas my love

1990 Gaspard et Robinson

1992 Latcho drom (Safe journey)

1994 Mondo

1995 Lucumi, le rumbero de Cuba (doc)

1996 I muvrini, polyphonie corse (doc)

1997 Gadjo dilo (The crazy stranger)

1998 Je suis né d’une cigogne (Children of the stork)

2000 Vengo (I come)

2002 Swing

2004 Exils (Exiles)

2006 Transylvania

2010 Liberté (Korkoro)

2012 Indignados

2014 Geronimo

2017 Djam

2021 Tom Medina

AWARDS AND FESTIVALS

2021 Cannes FF

2021 FIDMarseille IFF