28/06/2024 - As his work is about to screen as part of EFP’s Future Frames at Karlovy Vary, Cineuropa talks to the Romanian director about queer cinema and the short-film medium

Based in Bucharest, director Bogdan Alecsandru graduated from UNATC with a BA in Film and Television Directing, and has continued at the school with an MA in Film Directing. With a number of shorts already behind him, his latest film is If I Float, the story of two classmates who clash during a visit to the pool. But is schoolyard popularity the cause of the enmity between the two girls, or is there something more complex about their feelings for one another?

We talked to Alecsandru about his delicate and well-observed film before it screened at the 58th edition of the Karlovy Vary IFF as part of EFP’s Future Frames (see the news).

Cineuropa: What was the inspiration for If I Float?
Bogdan Alecsandru: During film school, I was recurrently interested in exploring narrative structures driven by unconscious endeavours, specifically the journey of deeply repressed feelings up to the point of outburst: how would these impulses concretely manifest themselves if you were to act upon them? Probably not very coherently. For this particular story, for which I found the high-school setting to be a suitable instigator for this repression, of course, my own high-school experience is a direct inspiration. I met up and reconnected with a former high-school classmate to write a script together, based on our different perspectives of our shared experience.

The film uses the short-film medium well. How important was it to you to keep this ambiguity of a relationship that flits between enmity and desire?
I am also interested in the limits and specificities of the short film as an independent art form and not as a precursor to a feature film. Certainly, in 10, 15 or 20 minutes, you generally don't have the possibility to develop a character strongly enough to show a real change in their life. However, I believe you can suggest hints of this change. I place the ambiguity of the characters' trajectory and the charm I find in such short stories in relation to the moral ambiguity of the storyteller, avoiding taking a visible stance. Thus, I believe it enhances the active involvement of the viewer.

How easy was the film to cast?
Casting resources for a student film in Romania, as probably in many other regions, are very limited, on a DIY level. I believe that limitations, however, can enhance creativity in decisions, and I am extremely lucky to have met a series of receptive and talented actors and acting students. Paula Pîrvu [Vio] and Cătălina Romaneț [Sara], two quite different individuals, didn't know each other, but I feel they clicked extremely well and quickly.

A large portion of the film is set in a swimming pool. It must have been a challenge to film in such an environment.
That's true. We managed to have a lifeguard on set most of the shooting days, but regarding the equipment, there were also unfortunate incidents. Along the way, we learned things and adapted for things we were not necessarily prepared for at the beginning of the shooting days, essentially having had no experience with underwater shoots. A fun fact in this regard is that the film is shot half on film and half on digital, because considering the resources we had, the only way to film in the water was by using a digital camera protected by a suitable underwater case. Thus, all handheld shots, where the camera is at water level or below, are shot on digital.

As a queer filmmaker, how do you respond to current trends in queer filmmaking?
Certainly, for a variety of reasons, queer-themed cinematography has developed and diversified enormously in the last 25 years in many parts of the world. I believe that the queer experience is just an umbrella term for a series of diverse and niche forms of life, and the heritage of global cinematography – more interconnected now than ever – would be enriched by showing unfamiliar and specific representations, different from the standardised image. Although in mainstream cinema, there are constant predictable instances of cliché, tokenism and opportunism, the process I am talking about exists and is growing, which makes me happy. As for myself, these are questions I ask myself daily. I believe in self-representation, and this is not just about queer themes. At this moment, I only aspire to get as close as possible to authenticity in representing my own niche path.