Gatlif was born in Algiers to a Kabyle father and a Romani mother.  After his childhood there, 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. Since the 1981 Corre, gitano, Gatlif's work has been focused on the Romani people of Europe, from whom he partially traces his descent.