The film is a coming of age road movie telling the story of second generation immigrant and budding artist Pawel who lives with his mother in the UK. She wants him to go back to Bulgaria for the summer holidays, instead he takes off on the road to find his hero, the legendary French painter Arnaud.
“I Want To Be Like You is a story of obsession, and near blind worship, of one’s artistic idols. In some ways, it’s a reflection on my own difficult relationship with art. During my teenage years, art for me was a quasi-religious endeavour, a matter of life and death. (...) At 16, I left art school to move to a remote village where an ascetic painter whom I greatly admired had once lived", Bojanov says in a statement.
It's the first film outing for the British writer Rebecca Lenckiewicz since penning the Academy Award winning screenplay of Ida. She co-wrote the script together with Konstantin Bojanov. Rising Irish Actor Barry Keoghan is starring. Shooting began on location in London prior to moving to Bulgaria and Belgium later in September and back to London in October.
“Konstantin and Rebecca Lenckiewicz have worked exceptionally well to produce a fabulous roller coaster of a road movie, and based on the material shot so far young stars like Barry Keoghan, Thure Lindhart and Solene Rigot will make this a film which will communicate internationally to a wide young audience,” says producer and CEO of Film and Music Entertainment Mike Downey.
According to a press release, the film is a partnership between Bulgaria’s Multfilm, London’s Film and Music Entertainment, and Brussels-based Left Field Ventures, and it was snapped up for international sales just prior to Cannes by Madrid-based Latido Films.
Production Information
Multfilm
40 Evlogi Georgiev Blvd, fl.1, ap.1, Sofia 1124, Bulgaria
Phone:+359 2 943 4904
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http://multfilm.bg/about/
Credits
Director: Konstantin Bojanov
Script: Konstantin Bojanov, Rebecca Lenckiewicz
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Thure Lindhart, Solene Rigot