Emir Kusturica’s 1988 feature film is a landmark—and frequently debated—cinematic representation of Romani life in late socialist Yugoslavia. Combining social realism, folklore, music, and magical-realist imagery, the film achieved wide international circulation and played a major role in shaping popular visual imaginaries of Balkan Roma. Its importance to the archive lies both in its use of Romani language and performers and in the questions it raises about representation, exoticism, poverty, and authorship in non-Roma portrayals of Roma communities.
