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Interview: Ştefan Constantinescu • Director of Man and Dog – “Romania and Sweden are on two different planets altogether” – Göteborg 2022

– The Romanian-born, Swedish-based director explains the forces at work behind his feature debut, which world-premiered at Göteborg

Following a career in multidisciplinary arts, a few short films and a documentary feature, Romanian director Ştefan Constantinescu directed his first fiction feature, Man and Dog [+see also:
film review
interview: Ştefan Constantinescu
film profile], the story of a Romanian man working in Sweden. Of course, after its world premiere at the Göteborg Film Festival, we immediately asked Constantinescu if the film is at least partly biographical, and here is what the director had to say about the story and about how he worked on the screenplay in two different languages.

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Cineuropa: How did Man and Dog come to be? Are there any biographical details in the story?
Ştefan Constantinescu:
Everything began in 2016, when I met [screenwriter] Andrei Epure. The film’s first draft was his. I loved it, and we decided to work together from afar, as he lives in Romania and I live in Sweden. Later, Jörgen Andersson joined the endeavour. I think everything we do comes from within ourselves, from past experiences, some of which we lived through ourselves, or we just heard or read about. At 53 [the director’s age], it’s hard to believe that you have not experienced betrayal, either as the perpetrator or the victim.

For me, Man and Dog is a film about alienation, about the compromises one might make in order to be able to work abroad (and thus validate oneself as a provider for one’s family). Was this aspect of the story important for you?
We people make plans and have all kinds of dreams. What is surprising is that we always have the feeling that only one tiny thing is separating us from reaching our objective. We are both so near and so far from what we want, and unfortunately, we don’t take into consideration all the forces involved in getting there, or if we do, enthusiasm and hopefulness force us to have a very subjective view on what is happening. Doru [the film’s protagonist, played by Bogdan Dumitrache] is a responsible man; he loves his family, and he left for Sweden in order to work and earn enough money to make his dream come true: a small B&B on the outskirts of Constanţa. But of course, things did not turn out as planned.

What was it like to shift your perspective from visual arts to filmmaking?
It is easy to work with familiar elements: composition, images, shapes and structures. And it is difficult to work with many people. Something that is extremely important for you may be a mere job for someone else, followed by another job next week, while you spend years and years working on your story. I understand the situation, but it is frustrating. It is a path you have to forge yourself, and while on it, you have important interactions that will shape your project one way or another.

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You wrote the screenplay with Andrei Epure, a Romanian, and with Jörgen Andersson, who is a Swede. What was it like working together?
We worked very well together, but the process was quite complicated. With Andrei, I worked every day, even though we met physically only a few times per year, while I was seeing Jörgen a few times every month. Also, I worked on drafts in Swedish with Jörgen and in Romanian with Andrei.

Are there any differences between working in film in Sweden and doing so in Romania?
I often find myself making this comparison, and it just doesn’t make sense: Romania and Sweden are on two different planets altogether. I can give you an example: in 2021, the Swedish Agency for Cultural Analysis conducted a study requested by the local government, examining “to what extent culture is independent – the impact of cultural policy on artistic freedom”. The results showed that neither visual arts nor cinema are actually independent, as they are subject to political control. I simply cannot imagine a Romanian government that would commission such a study.

Do you have a new feature-length project in the works? What is it about?
I am trying to decide on a screenplay written by Cristi Puiu and Răzvan Rădulescu, Food for Small Fish. It is the story of an average man’s failure, but an understandable failure.

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