The film 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.
Mitulescu, who co-wrote and produced the acclaimed If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle directed by Florin Şerban, is using 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 started on 27 September and will wrap mid-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 is 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 (http://www.filmivast.se/sv/Film-i-Vast/) and Chimney Pot (www.thechimneypot.com), Serbia's Cinebox (www.cinebox.rs) and France's Les films Pelléas (www.lesfilmspelleas.com).
Most of the funding comes from Romania. The Swedish and the Serbian companies are providing services. Strada Film and Les films Pelléas will apply for a grant from ARTE (www.arte.fr) in November. 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 (http://www.sff.ba/en/cinelink), 10,000 euro from the Thessaloniki Balkan Fund (http://www.filmfestival.gr/balkan_fund/index_uk.html) 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 local premiere is planned for 2011, producer Daniel Mitulescu told FNE.
Production Information
Strada Film
41 Dr. Staicovici Street, Sect.5
055556, Bucharest, Romania
Phone/Fax: 0040-21-411.80.99
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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
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Cinebox 100
Belgrade office
Pivljanina Baje II deo br.23
11000, Belgrade, Serbia
Phone: +381.11.3699374
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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
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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
