SKUPLJACI PERJA - I Even Met Happy Gypsies

Steven Wagner - Stevan Vagner, Podrum COLLEGIUM MELODIUM, World music museum in BELGRADE and Dipl. ing. MILANCE, presennt, I Even Met Happy Gypsies a 1967 Yugoslav film by Serbian director Aleksandar Petrović. Its original Serbian title is Skupljači perja, which means The Feather Gatherers. The film is centered on Romani people's life in a village in northern Vojvodina, but it also deals with subtler themes such as love, ethnic and social relationships. Beside Bekim Fehmiu, Olivera Vučo, Bata Živojinović and Mija Aleksić, film features a cast of Romani actors speaking the Romani language. I Even Met Happy Gypsies is considered one of the best films of the so-called Black Wave in Yugoslav cinema. The protagonist, Bora (Bekim Fehmiu), is a charming but mean-spirited gypsy, while his older wife, Lence (Olivera Vučo), is submissive. Bora is in love with the younger Tisa (Gordana Jovanović), who is being offered in marriage by her father. The two get themselves in trouble and eventually have to flee. Tisa rejects her husband and she and Bora get married in the church. Tisa tries to get to Belgrade, while Bora stabs a man in a knife fight. They are both, therefore, exiled from their Romani camp, yet their adventures continue.