21-11-2010

PRODUCTION: Filming Wraps on The Little Spartan

By Iulia Blaga

    BUCHAREST: Dragoş Iuga is in production with his first feature The Little Spartan/Micul spartan, a fantasy story told in mockumentary style for grown-up audiences and also for children, the director told FNE.

    The main character is a midget (a non-professional actor) Iuga has filmed over the last 12 years on digital, 16 and 35 mm, playing a young man obsessed with gaining some more centimeters. The film is a fantasy presented in a fake documentary approach, combining real people with animation and SGI, a novelty for Romanian cinema.

    The project is produced by Dan Badea and Temple Film (www.templefilm.ro) and also by Dragoş Iuga and Yakasha Film (www.yakashafilm.ro). It won a grant from the National Centre for Cinema (www.cncinema.abt.ro), and it is also supported by the agency Initiative Media and the communication company Romtelecom (www.romtelecom.ro) through United Media agency (www.unitedcom.org). The budget is 500,000 euro. Iuga, who also wrote the script, applied several times for a grant from CNC before receiving it in October 2008.

    The shooting started in 2010 with 3 days in January and will wrap in November, after another 23 days. The film is shot on location, with one of the most difficult scenes shot on a lake, at -18 degrees Centigrade. The local premiere is tentatively set for 2011.

    Iuga (born in 1970) graduated Bucharest Drama and Film University and has a Master's Degree in Visual Arts from the University of California San Diego. He made several short fiction, documentary and animated films, awarded at Valladolid, Cork, Karlovy Vary, Munich, Dresden, San Gio Verona, and Houston.

     

    Production Information

    Temple Film

    2, Gabroveni Street, 5th floor

    Sector 1,Bucharest, Romania

     

    Phone/Fax:+ 40.21. 313.33.62

    www.templefilm.ro

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    Yakasha Film

     

    57, Badea Cârţan street

    sector 2, Bucharest, Romania

     

    Phone/Fax: +40.21. 212.49.56

    www.yakashafilm.ro

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    Credits

     

    Director: Dragoş Iuga

    Script: Dragoş Iuga

    Cast: Gabriel Diţă