18/10/2010

Catalin Mitulescu (The Way I Spent the End of the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) has started shooting on his second feature, Loverboy. Formerly known as A Heart-Shaped Balloon, the film is a social drama about sex trafficking and stars young actors George Pistereanu and Ada Condeescu, both famous for their turns as the unwilling couple of Forin Serban's If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ada Condeescu
film profile], winner of two prizes at this years Berlinale.

Like Serban's feature debut, Mitulescu's film is produced by Strada Film and centres on Luca (Pistereanu), a so-called “loverboy”. A young delinquent, he makes teenage girls fall in love with him and then forces them to sell themselves through a prostitution network based in the city of Constanta. His way of life could change when he falls in love with Veli (Condeescu), who forces him to make a definitive choice.

Pistereanu and Condeescu are flanked by other well-known Romanian actors: Bogdan Dumitrache (Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man [+see also:
film review
film profile]), Clara Voda (the mother in If Want to Whistle), Coca Bloos (Nikki and Flo) and Ion Besoiu. The cast also includes amateurs, such as Alexandru Mititelu, who played Godson in If I Want to Whistle.

Shooting takes place in Constanta and is expected to wrap mid-November. A domestic release is expected next year, perhaps after a premiere at an important film festival.

Strada Films has not announced yet the co-producers of the Romanian/Swedish/French/Serbian co-production, nor the film's budget. In 2006, it received €350,000 from the Romanian Film Centre.

Mitulescu's first feature, The Way I Spent the End of the World, screened in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes 2006, where it won a Best Actress award for Dorotheea Petre.