Tony Gatlif

Tony Gatlif (real name Michel Dahmani born September 10, 1948, Algiers, Algeria) is a French film director who also works as a scriptwriter, actor, and producer. After a childhood in Algiers, Gatlif arrived in France in 1960 following the Algerian War of Independence. Gatlif struggled for years to break into the film industry, playing in several theatrical productions until directing his first film, La Tête en ruine, in 1975. He followed it with the 1979 La Terre au ventre, a story of the Algerian War of Independence.