Dir.: Stole Popov

Born in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia in 1950, Stole Popov graduated in film direction from the Belgrade Academy of Theatre, Film and Television and currently teaching the subject at the School of Dramatic Arts in Skopje. His filmography includes: "99" (1972), "Fire" (1974), AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA (1976, winner of a gold medal at the Belgrade Festival), "Dae" (179), RED HORSE (1982), HAPPY NEW YEAR 1949 (1986) and TATTOO (1991), which was nominated for a Felix and was shown at the 1992 Montreal World Film Festival.

GYPSY MAGIC (CO)
1997 / 35 mm / Couleur / 128 min.
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
TM.30.2, CI.30.2, CI.31.4 

Dir.: Stole Popov; Script: Vladimir Blazevski; Phot.: Apostol Trpeski; Ed.: Dimitar Grbevski; Mus.: Vlatko Stefanovski; Cast: Miki Manojlovic, Antony Zaki, Bajram Severgen, Toni Mihajlovski, Arna Shijakovic, Goran Dodevski, Hasan Dzemail, Bekir Adnan, Dancho Chevreski, Shaban Bajramovic, Salija Rustenov; Prod. & Sales: Gorjan Tozija, Dancho Chevreski, Stole Popov, Vardar Film, 8 Mart, 4, 91000 Skopje (R�publique de Mac�doine), t�l.: (389-91) 117 527, fax: (389-91) 132 150.

"This is a funny yet sad story of a Gypsy family, great dreamers making a last, desperate effort to find their way out of the Balkan labyrinth absurdity, evil and misfortune. In terms of atmosphere and associations which come to mind, the story explores a situation in which one set of social rules have suddenly disappeared while new ones are still being established. In another way of putting it, the lights are going out and in the new darkness you are responsible for finding your way around as best you can. The Gypsies serve merely as a picturesque backdrop for the more universal story of the rejected and the maladjusted, of those who don't know the rules and have trouble finding their way around in the dark... people we come across every day and whose tragicomic fate rarely occupies more than a minute of our thoughts, people whose stories never make the first five pages of the daily newspaper. This film tells about the little people, the forgotten street heroes who make the news only in the obituaries or crime sections. The fact that the people in this story are Gypsies has more to do with their ethnic stereotyping and their seeming affinity for 'irrational' behaviour than it does with their unhappy position on the lowest rung of the social ladder and as their being the least integrated ethnic community in these regions." -- Stole Popov