I Even Met Happy Gypsies (Aleksandar Petrović, 1967)

by Elena Lazic

Released in 1967 like Dušan Makavejev’s Love Affair, or The Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator — which I wrote about on the Substack a few weeks back — Aleksandar Petrović’s I Even Met Happy Gypsies was a hit both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Nominated for the Palme d'Or in Cannes, where it won the Special Grand Prize of the Jury and the FIPRESCI Prize, it was also nominated for the 1967 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and at the Golden Globes. Today, it is considered by many to be the best and most famous Yugoslav Black Wave title.

But the two films have more in common than just the year they came out.