Tony Gatlif dies aged 77

Tony Gatlif died aged 77 while working on a historical film project in Arles in southern France, with his family confirming the death to AFP, according to the Guardian. He was best known for Latcho Drom, his 1993 breakthrough that traces Roma music from India to Spain and won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes.

Gatlif made more than 20 films, repeatedly returning to Roma life and music as subject rather than backdrop. The Guardian notes that he followed Latcho Drom with Gadjo Dilo, a 1997 film about a Frenchman searching for a Roma singer in Romania; it won a Silver Leopard at Locarno and a César for best original music. His later film Exils, starring Romain Duris, explored his Algerian heritage and won best director at Cannes in 2004.

Born Michel Dahmani in Algeria in 1948, Gatlif was of part Berber and part Roma heritage and left for France in 1960 during the Algerian war of independence, the Guardian reports. He later described himself as a violent, rebellious teenager and took the name Gatlif from a park in Algiers. His films built a recognizable signature—road travel, movement, music, exile—while staying close to communities that are often filmed by outsiders as problems to be managed rather than people with their own aesthetic traditions.

France’s culture minister, Catherine Pégard, said Gatlif had a fondness for the road less travelled and blurred borders, and that he filmed music, movement, exile and freedom with unique energy, according to the Guardian. The family statement quoted by AFP wished him “Latcho Drom”—“safe journey”—using the same Roma phrase that titled the film that made his reputation.

Gatlif’s career shows how a director can build international recognition by repeatedly choosing subjects that do not come with built-in studio marketing. On Wednesday, his family marked his death with the words he once used to send his characters down the road.