Time of the Gypsies · reception & legacy

1988 · Emir Kusturica

How Time of the Gypsies has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

It won Kusturica Best Director at Cannes in 1989 and was acclaimed from the start — but its standing has only grown as Kusturica's own reputation has soured, with many fans now treating it as the film of his that holds up best, often ranked above his two Palme d'Or winners.

What's debated

The perennial debate: is this a deeply humane portrait of Roma life or a lush exoticization of it — and can you separate the film from Kusturica's later political persona?

Its footprint

Its true cultural escape artist is Goran Bregović's 'Ederlezi', which left the film behind to become a global standard — endlessly covered, sampled, and reused across films and soundtracks, including in Borat.

Where it stands

Peak Kusturica for a large faction of cinephiles — a Letterboxd favourite whose 'actually his best film' status is one of world cinema's more reliable hot takes.

★ Did you know? It's performed almost entirely in the Romani language — a first for a major feature film — with a largely non-professional Roma cast, and Kusturica later reworked it into a 'punk opera' that premiered in Paris in 2007.