02-06-2011

FNE at TIFF Romanian Days: Loverboy

By Iulia Blaga

    Loverboy, the second feature from Romanian director Cătălin Mitulescu tells the story of Luca, a 20 year old boy from a Romanian village who makes girls fall in love with him in order to lure them into prostitution networks in a town nearby. In the language of the police he is a loverboy. However when Luca meets Veli, he falls in love with her and starts questioning himself, and thinks of leaving his job and staying with her.

    {mosimage}Mitulescu, who co-wrote and produced the acclaimed If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle directed by Florin Şerban, used the same main actors from the film awarded at the Berlinale 2010: George Piştereanu and Ada Condeescu. The cast of more than 30 includes Bogdan Dumitrache, Clara Vodă, Coca Bloos, Ion Besoiu, Remus Mărgineanu and Alexandru Mititelu, alongside many nonprofessional actors. Marius Panduru (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle, Police, Adjective, The Way I Spent the End of the World) is the DOP. Loverboy previously had the working title A Heart Shape Balloon. Shooting took place from September through November 2010, using 15 locations.

    Mitulescu won the Palme d'Or for the short film Traffic in 2004. His first feature, The Way I Spent the End of the World/Cum mi-am petrecut sfârşitul lumii (www.sfarsitullumii.ro) was awarded with the Best Actress Award (Dorotheea Petre) in Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival in 2006.

    Loverboy was written by Mitulescu and Bogdan Mustaţă, and produced by Strada Film (www.stradafilm.ro), the company established by Mitulescu in 2004, in co-production with the Swedish companies Film i Väst AB (www.filmivast.se) and Chimney Pot (www.thechimneypot.com), and Serbia's Cinebox (www.cinebox.rs).

    Most of the funding comes from Romania. The Swedish and the Serbian companies are providing services. The script received a 400,000 Euro grant from the Romanian Film Centre (www.cncinema.abt.ro) in 2006, and won the Best Project Award of 12,500 euro at Sarajevo CineLink (www.sff.ba/en/cinelink), 10,000 euro from the Thessaloniki Balkan Fund (www.filmfestival.gr/balkan_fund) in 2006, and 20,000 euro from the Pre Media Support (www.pre-mediasupport.ro). The film was pre-sold to Romanian public television (www.tvr.ro) and HBO Romania (www.hbo.ro). The film was picked up for world sales by by Celluloid Dreams (www.celluloid-dreams.com).

    Production Information

    Strada Film

    41 Dr. Staicovici Street, Sect.5

    055556, Bucharest, Romania

    Phone/Fax: 0040-21-411.80.99

    www.stradafilm.ro

    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

    Film i Väst AB

    Box 134

    461 23 Trollhättan

    Akerssjöv. 4, Sweden

    Phone: +46 (0) 520- 49 09 00

    Fax: + 46 (0) 520- 49 09 01

    http://www.filmivast.se/sv/Film-i-Vast/

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    The Chimney Pot

    Sturegatan 58

    114 36 Stockholm, Sweden

    Phone: +46 8 587 50 500

    Fax: +46 8 587 50 501

    www.thechimneypot.com

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    Cinebox 100

    Belgrade office

    Pivljanina Baje II deo br.23

    11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Phone: +381.11.3699374

    www.cinebox.rs

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    Novi Sad office

    Futoska 1a, app. 505

    21000 Novi Sad

    Phone: +381.21.472316

    Fax: +381.21.6614270

    Les films Pelléas

    25 rue Michel Le Comte

    75003 Paris

    Phone / Fax : 33 (0)1 42 74 31 00 / 41 00

    www.lesfilmspelleas.com

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    Credits

    Director: Cătălin Mitulescu

    Script: Cătălin Mitulescu

    Bogdan Mustaţă

    DOP: Marius Panduru

    Cast: George Piştereanu

    Ada Condeescu

    Bogdan Dumitrache

    Clara Vodă

    Coca Bloos

    Ion Besoiu

    Remus Mărgineanu

    Alexandru Mititelu