Gypsies is a documentary effort by the Hungarian filmmaker Sándor Sára (b. 1933) that exposes the poor living conditions of Roma in rural settlements and the prevailing negative stereotypes about them in Hungary. Historically marginalized and exploited since arriving in eastern Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries, Roma continued to face persecution and prejudice throughout the 20th century (the term Porajmos designates their attempted annihilation during the Holocaust). Even as the Communist regime propagated an ideologically and otherwise unified socialist state, the segregation and marginalization of this minority largely continued throughout the postwar decades, although as Gypsies demonstrates, the 1960s and 1970s produced a number of state-funded works in the arts and social sciences that engaged Roma and their socioeconomic challenges.[1] Gypsies is also a prominent example of a nonfiction work that came out of the Balázs Béla Studio to take on controversial subject matter. Initially, the film was to be produced at the Budapest Film Studio, which rejected the project, deeming the original script too contentious. The film thus was moved to BBS, becoming its first documentary production and illustrating the lyrical style associated with the early period of the studio.[2]

Juxtaposing newspaper headlines that decry prejudice and promote Roma integration in Hungarian society with Roma men explaining the prejudices they face when trying to get a job, as well as images of poverty and neglect pervading their community, Sára exposes the Roma’s harsh living conditions. The poetic cinematography and rhythmical editing that drive the film produce a striking visual record of the unique cultural environment of the Roma, highlighting both their archaic ways and their inevitable societal exclusion from an increasingly modernized world. Along with social critique, the film also contains a hopeful perspective, showing the education and assimilation of future generations as a key factor in the successful societal integration of this once-itinerant group. A striking example of this includes a young Roma child reciting a canonical work of Hungarian poetry, implicitly integrating the younger generation into the fabric of the nation.  — Sonja Simonyi

Allegorical despite a lack of any plot, One Day More depicts people, many of them elderly, sitting in a large pool of mud outside the small Serbian town of Bujanovac, some deliberately smearing the substance over themselves because it is believed to cure even incurable illnesses.[3] As Sayre wrote, “Heads seem to float on the water, while mist rises in a shot that Fellini might envy.” Accompanying the film is a sung, wordless chorus that adds a liturgical and apocalyptic air to the proceedings. It highlights the condition of people who, faced with their mortality, seem willing to literally sink low in the dirt to extend life by one more day—or, as Gilić himself puts it, “Man is ready to go through hell to live one day more—and not a day less.”  — Ksenya Gurshtein

With thanks to Adam Hyman, Los Angeles Filmforum, and Vera Mijojlić, South East European Film Festival, Los Angeles, who co-organized a series of screenings of Gilić’s work in the United States in 2012–13, for their assistance with research, and to Haden Guest and Mark Johnson at the Harvard Film Archive for help in making a screening of this film possible in Washington.