A Prince and a Half is the third
\nfilm directed by Ana Lungu. It had its world premiere at the 2018 Sarajevo Film
\nFestival, and can be seen in Romania as of September. The film tells the story
\nof a charismatic trio: a divorced father, played by Marius Manole, a single
\nwoman, played by Iris Spiridon, and a gay man, played by Istvan Teglas. They
\nlive together in an apartment in Bucharest, and the point of tension appears
\nthe moment Iris falls in love with a Hungarian writer from Transylvania, played
\nby Laszlo Matray. Here is Ana Lungu: <\/p>\n
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A Prince and a Half is related to two
\nprevious projects of mine. I worked on my first movie, The Belly of the Whale,
\nwith a friend of mine, Ana Szel, and this time I’ve made the movie with another
\ngood friend of mine, Iris Spiridon. In both cases, we decided that we would
\nwrite scripts inspired by their life, and right from the start we decided that
\nthey would play the leading role. It is true that we tried to recreate a
\ncertain world, a certain social crust, that of people around 30 or 40 years of
\nage, who are still trying to seek their place in contemporary Romanian society.
\nThese are people that are somewhat aimless, maladapted. For this reason, we
\npicked our characters to be a divorced dad, a gay guy and a single woman. I
\nbelieve that what characterizes this generation, to which I belong, and which
\nis depicted in the movie, is the fact that it does not play by the classical
\nrules of maturity. I tried not to pass judgment or make value judgments, but I
\nbelieve that the family in which I grew up, a traditional family, is less and
\nless encountered. This was another topic that continues to concern us, me and
\nmy co-writer, Iris Spiridon.<\/p>\n
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Iris Spiridon, lead actress and
\nco-writer of the movie, plays an actress with a fairly alien universe: she
\nloved Jesus as a small girl, reads one book per day, and will only act in
\nproductions that she deems artistically valuable. Here is Iris Spiridon talking
\nabout the film: <\/p>\n
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We find in this film all the topics
\nthat preoccupy us, Ana and me. We have been talking for years about these
\nthings, the two of us and our friends have become accustomed to speaking openly
\nabout these things. I dislike talking about banal things, and I find myself
\ntalking about serious things, even when talking to strangers. I ask them if
\nthey have faith, what they think about love, I ask them about serious things.
\nWhich is why many times people feel scared about questions like that, but I
\nthink that it is the only solution if you don’t want to waste time. I have
\ndecided, together with Ana, to introduce in the movie this topic of death, a
\ntopic that concerns me a lot, and is present in all my shows. During the
\nshooting of the movie itself, one friend of mine happened to pass away, and
\nthat made me think even more seriously about these things. But it all started
\nwith my friend, and with Marius and Istvan, and I remember I wrote to Ana that
\nit would be a pity for this relationship to get lost. I thought that these
\nthings would do well to be preserved somewhere, for this story to be
\nimmortalized somewhere, because we may never be this way again. This was our
\nyouth, and it seemed proper for it to remain somewhere.<\/p>\n
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Ana Lungu told us what it was like
\nto make a film with friends, for a small amount of money, without financing
\nfrom the National Cinema Center, a film in which people play themselves: <\/p>\n
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As Iris herself was saying, and as
\nactor Marius Manole jokingly pointed out, this movie has been repeating itself
\nfor the last fifteen years, when they have been having this friendship. As for
\nour work methodology, here is how it goes: we started making a script, which we
\nwrote and re-wrote for two years. We had fun, but, as in any serious endeavor,
\nwe had tough moments, when we couldn’t find solutions for the movie. Our
\nintention was to build a few situations which we rehearsed, we filmed the
\nrehearsals, and picked what we liked. This was how we worked. I think that the
\nlack of budgeting can in this case be considered an advantage, because we had a
\nvery small team, and I, as a director, like a lot to work with small teams,
\nwhich I believe helps people be more like themselves.<\/p>\n
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In addition to the actors we already
\nmentioned, the movie ‘A Prince and a Half’ also features director Radu Afrim
\nand choreographer Razvan Mazilu. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Prince and a Half is the third film directed by Ana Lungu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":162212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[44949,44926],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-162211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-ana-lungu","tag-romanian-cinema"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n