Cosmina Stratan shines in “Frère et soeur”

At the beginning of year, the film Frère et soeur/Brother and sister/, directed by Arnaud Desplechin, was screened in Romanian cinemas.

Corina Sabău, 09.12.2023, 14:00

At the beginning of year, the film “Frère et soeur”/”Brother and Sister”, directed by Arnaud Desplechin, was screened in Romanian cinemas. Part of the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, the production features renowned actors like Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud. Alice (Marion Cotillard) and Louis (Melvil Poupaud) are brother and sister in the film. She is an actress and he is a teacher and poet. They havent seen each other for more than two decades, but the death of their parents makes their reunion inevitable. The cast of the film “Frère et soeur” also includes Romanian actress Cosmina Stratan, awarded in 2012 in Cannes for her exceptional performance in the film “Beyond the Hills”, directed by Cristian Mungiu.

In the new film, directed by Arnaud Desplechin, Cosmina Stratan plays the role of Lucia, a Romanian immigrant who Alices best frind. Arnaud Desplechin had also cast Cosmina in his film, “Tromperie”, but due to the pandemic, the collaboration did not materialise. Cosmina Stratan: “We were left with a feeling of regret that we did not manage to synchronize, especially since it doesn’t happen often that a director you admire to offer you a part in one of his films. But Arnaud Desplechin understood that my absence was motivated. I had the feeling that he made room for me in this new film, from the beginning. That is why I was less nervous than usual – I knew it was a character created for me. As for the role Im playing, I cant say it was too difficult, because I am a fan of Marion Cotillard anyway, so it wasnt difficult for me to show it on screen. What Ive noticed about my favourite actors and partners that Ive worked with so far is that they get over the normal initial awkwardness very quickly. It is not very easy for us either to overcome this barrier at the beginning. We are people who meet for the first time on a film set and it is impossible to ignore this distance that separates us. At the same time, we have a common goal, to get to understand the character that we are playing, so that we can explore the situations in the film together. With Marion Cottilard this process was natural. She also wanted to overcome that distance and we collaborated very well. We synchronised and that helped a lot, especially because it’s much more difficult to overcome your emotions when you are working with someone you really admire.”

Originally from Iasi, Cosmina Stratan studied journalism and worked at the Student Opinion magazine. In 2008, she was admitted to the Acting Department of the University of Theater and Cinematography in Bucharest. After acting in several short films, the actress played the role of Voichița, a young mother who sees her childhood friend again, in Cristian Mungius film, După dealuri (Over the Hillls), a role for which she received the award for female performance at the Film Festival in Cannes. French director Arnaud Desplechin stated that he chose Cosmina Stratan for the role of Lucia in Brother and Sister after noticing her in the production Over the Hillls. Cosmina Stratan:

“It was a role that I consider a turning point, even if it came up at the beginning of my career. A turning point, in the sense that Over the Hills was my first major film, and also my first paid job in this business. I say the first paid job because in college we, the actors, do all kinds of practice with our colleagues from the directing department, but those are roles for which we are not paid. In my case, everything happened at once, the first paid job, and the first leading role, and the Cannes Performance Award. It was somehow a confirmation that I was looking for, because acting is a job where you can also have insecurities. I needed feedback, an answer that I was in the right place, and because before acting I had tried other jobs, acting was the second option for me, and the role in Over the Hills was a great help. This recognition, due to the visibility of the film and the character, helped me continue my career and gave me hope that I would act in other films. Somehow this story reassured me, it assured me that something else would follow, because I had that anxiety that many actors have at the beginning of their journey, especially if they are on their own and are not employed in a theater. At the beginning it is quite complicated to imagine the future.”

Cosmina Stratan also played a role in the short film “Intercom 15”, written and directed by Andrei Epure, selected in 2021 in the La Semaine de la Critique competition at the Cannes Film Festival.