Little Red Riding into the Unfamiliar
Talent Press alumna Erzsébet Plájás about the shooting of Eva Pervolovici's LITTLE RED, one of the five finalists of the Berlin Today Award, the short film competition of the Berlinale Talent Campus
Photo: Young actress Ruhna Mocanu (Ica) together with camera assistent Florian Draghici and Kamera-Operator Ovidiu Turcu during the shooting of LITTLE RED. © Beleza Film
The thrill of the unknown, the sensual magnet of the forbidden leads to discovery in the vivid imagination of a young girl, and unveils new paths for experimentation to the young Romanian director, Eva Pervolovici. Chosen amongst the 5 finalists of the 2011 Berlin Today Award – Berlinale Talent Campus short film competition, Eva’s film project, LITTLE RED produced by Beleza Film, leaves the familiar sector to enter the mythical woods. “The first part is very realistic, almost like the Romanian filmic line, and then it gets crazy”, notes the director. As I entered the filming set one evening, I felt the blend of craziness and authenticity spreading in the forest, the magic of the surreal and the real, where the sound of the clapper board was a crackling twig, where one could find loads of oversized bras hanging from some clothing lines, the coffee-slurping crew annoyed by mosquitoes, or a huge doll in the forest with an uncanny smile on its face, and the protagonist, Ruhna Mocanu, this charming young girl whose voice echoed through the night: “attentiooon, we’re filmiiiing!”. And there it happened, between the 23rd and the 28th of August 2010 in and around Bucharest, Romania: the stylization of an experience, the transition from real-life to film, from concept to magic.
The story of LITTLE RED, written by Monica Stan and Eva Pervolovici, even though it is full of the vibrant whirls of the surreal, deals with the basic and realistic human phase: when a young girl on the threshold of childhood and adolescence discovers her own sexuality. “I wish that those who see this film would start thinking about their own childhood and experiences of these sorts. I’m really drawn to exploring the documentary for the fiction. Surrealism can be found in anything I do. Whatever weird I do, it needs to be connected to reality”, said the director, and then she added: “It’s not weird, but rather crazy”.
Eva Pervolovici, who started coquetting with art as a teenager through graffiti, visual arts and writing, got to directing award-winning short films, which can blend most of her interests. “I am a director in growth, for now I’d like to try all sorts of things. Every film is a new territory, which needs to be explored, just like every time you meet someone” – said the director, who lives in Paris at the moment and is working on several film projects, two of which feature films, one set in France and the other in Romania. She considers that the recognition of the Romanian film is a great opportunity; it grants an interest on behalf of the audience that did not exist before.
One key element to filmmaking and to finding the right topic, according to the director, is that it has to be personal, a thought which rhymes with the idea of a good film in the vision of Jessica Landt and Falk Nagel from the German production company, Beleza Film. “It is always good if a story has a personal touch to it, it is creative, not just intellectual, art, but not too experimental” – said Jessica, who finds the emotional, personal way of approach really important and noted that they had very good exchange of experience with Eva concerning this project.
Although the director and the production team have met before, being part of the Berlin Today Award competition with the 2010 theme: “Leaving the familiar sector”, has made it possible for this exchange to happen, compiling an intriguingly promising film called LITTLE RED, which will premiere at the 2011 Berlinale Talent Campus in February.
Every step into the unknown is a thrill and a challenge and probably filmmakers are the ones who know this best, who can also confirm, that it is a journey always worth taking. “Every step you take” is the motto of the 2012 edition of the Berlin Today Award open to current applicants and former participants of the Berlinale Talent Campus. This step can be taken until October 6, 2010. For step-by-step information you can tiptoe around: http://www.berlinale-talentcampus.de/story/94/3594.html
By Erzsébet Plájás