Vilnius is a multicultural city where "I love you" is spoken in dozens of languages every day. It is about international passions that the romantic comedy "9 ½ love stories in one Vilnius apartment" starts showing in Lithuanian cinemas on February 5. Director Tomas Vengris actually invited actors from various countries to his family's apartment - Lithuanians, Latvians, Hungarians, Irish, Israelis and Poles created the roles here. The entire action of the film takes place in a rented apartment, the inhabitants of which change without having any idea of the joys and sorrows that existed within these walls before their stay.
"It was a really nice job - we managed to gather a lot of actors from different countries for "5 ½ love stories in one Vilnius apartment"! Tom gave me a lot of freedom. For example, at first we thought that we could choose a Dutch actor for the role of Philip, but in the end we found the wonderful Hungarian Géza Röhrig", says Nancy Bishop, who was in charge of the international casting of the film. An American from New England who lives and works in Europe, she has worked with directors such as Roman Polanski and Peter Greenaway.
G. Röhrig is the most famous face of T. Hungary's film. It was remembered by everyone who saw it in 2015. The film "Son of the Sun", which won the "Grand Prix", "Oscar" and "Golden Globe" at the Cannes Festival (Son of Saul, dir. László Nemes,), in which the actor played the main role. The Hungarian has been living in New York for several years and is an acclaimed poet. In the Lithuanian romantic comedy, G. Röhrig plays his complete opposite - a sleazy DJ who remembers the old times in Vilnius, whose charm has already been released.
Remembering the work with the Lithuanian film, N. Bishop singles out the wonderful experience of presenting talented Israeli actors to an international audience. This is like Yiftach Klein and Hadar Ratzon-Rotem, who has been acting in his country's film and television productions for two decades, and who, among other achievements, created a role in the highly popular TV series "Motherland" (Homeland). H. Radzon-Rotem's heroine comes to Vilnius to search for her family roots - after all, while digging into history, she also has to deal with contemporary problems arising between her and her husband.
Lithuanians will also recognize Juliusz Krzystof Warunek, who played the Polish elderly man in the film. He created the role in the Oscar-nominated film "The Body of Christ", which was screened at "Kino Pasar" and received a lot of audience sympathy (Corpus Christi, 2019, dir. Jan Komasa). JK Warunek's partner in T. Hungary's work is Magdalena Celówna-Janikowska.
Casting director N. Bishop is convinced that it was the high quality of the script of the film "5 ½ love stories in one Vilnius apartment" that led to the fact that Irish actresses who knew little about Lithuania willingly agreed to film in this film. That's how Alison Oliver, who just played in the film "Saltburn" came to celebrate her heroine's bachelorette party at Mr. Hungary's apartment. Also - Valene Kane, who works a lot not only in the cinema, but also in the theater. Among the recent works of this Irishwoman is the role of Lady Macbeth in the iconic Shakespearean tragedy created at the invitation of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In Vilnius, V. Kane played the sister of the bride-to-be, who gets into an unenviable situation after her heart flutters - and angers the young woman.
The main role of Jolanta, the cleaner of the rented apartment, which combines five love stories, was created by Velta Žygure-Anužienė, an actress of Latvian origin living in Lithuania. The film also stars Vidas Petkevičius, Jonas Braškys, Marijus Mažūnas, Šarūnas Datenis, Adelė Šuminskaitė, Gintautė Rusteikaitė, Skomantas Duoplys.
"5 ½ love stories in one Vilnius apartment" is a film co-produced by Lithuania (Studio Uljana Kim), Ireland (Tiger Darling Productions) and Latvia (Studio Locomotive), financed by the Lithuanian Film Center, Council of Europe Fund " Eurimages, Screen Ireland, Latvian National Film Center and Lithuanian National Radio and Television.
