Ivan Naniev, scriptwriter and director
The movie tells the story of an African prince who wants to live not in Africa, but in Moldova. Here he received a law degree, defended his doctorate and decided to become a university lecturer. He meets his love – a simple Moldovan girl from the village of Bubueci, who wants to marry a rich man. And the intriguing story of the prince, who faces injustice, betrayal, corruption and racial prejudice, is full of dramatic twists and turns. The movie raises important social issues, while remaining light and enjoyable to watch. It makes the viewer laugh, cry and think about life. It is filmed in Russian, with about 20 percent of the dialog in Romanian – between civil servants, etc.
What inspired the scriptwriter and director Ivan Naniev to create such an unusual plot?
– It was a social request from European partners to create content about black people, which we don’t have much of,” he explains. – My business partner, producer Sergiu Skobioale, wrote the idea for the script, the project was sent to festivals, and at the Warsaw festival we received first place for the idea. After that we decided to make a movie.
What is curious: Valentin Fedorov, who plays the prince, got the role by chance, and is not an actor. “It was written under another dark-skinned guy – explains Ivan. – But he two weeks before the shooting to participate refused for fear that he will not pull out. I had to urgently look for a replacement, found Valentine, began to “mold him into an actor. I believe that Valentin coped very well with his task.
Filming took place in Chisinau and in the village of Bravici, Calarasi district. “This is my sixth movie, and the team, as they say, “got their hands on it”, – commented Naniev. – It was fall, and before the leaves fell on the trees, we had to shoot everything. The plan was to shoot 15 days, but we managed for 11. There were a lot of rehearsals, so we managed to shoot everything in one or two takes.
With the film “Prince from Bubuech” Ivan Naniev sought to convey the feeling of love and the attitude of society towards people of color, as it should be.
The film’s budget: about 1 million lei came from the European organization Content Fund, which finances culturally significant projects. And about 500 thousand lei were allocated by local partners. It is not enough, that’s why there were few shooting days, we worked with a small team – about 300 people. The previous movie “The Power of Probability” with a budget of five million lei united about a thousand people.
By the way, “The Prince from Bubueche” is Ivan Naniev’s debut in the genres of light drama and comedy. He mostly shoots dramas and action dramas.
“Prince” has been sent to European festivals, as well as festivals in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.
Ivan Naniev has an unusual path to directing. He was born in the village of Bravici and spent his childhood and youth in Ribnita in Transnistria. After finishing school, he came to Chisinau and received a law degree. During his student years he spent several months in Italy, where he gained a great experience of life.
“I always wanted to go into business,” says Ivan. – And my partner and I, at the time of establishing Shepherd Company in 2010, thought for a long time whether to open a clothing factory or a movie studio. But since cinema was practically dead in our country, and we were young and naive, we decided to create a movie studio. And in 2011 we made the first comedy in independent Moldova – the movie “Fat”, which failed at the box office. It seemed to me that we were capable of more, and I decided to create the movie “Hunter”, it was released in 2014, performed well at the box office and received good reviews”.
Ivan Naniev is studying in-depth dramaturgy, acting, producing and other disciplines. And each of his next movie becomes better than the previous one, the technique improves, the budget increases. “In 2019, a very good film called ‘Botez’ (‘Baptism’) came out, which won the Grand Prix in Uzbekistan,” he says. – “And our poster of the movie ‘Baptism’ was under the Moldovan flag, which is very nice.” In 2021, during the pandemic, we shot the series “Sprinter”. Then there was a break, I worked on the movie “The Power of Probability”, which came out in 2023. It is part of a big new 10-year project involving the five forces. The script has already been written and preparations are underway to shoot the second part of the project, “The Power of Love”. “The Power of Probability” made more money in its first weekend than all my previous movies combined. It hit HBO’s international platform earlier this year, which competes with Netflix and is considered very prestigious. Our movie is so far the only one from the Moldovan film industry to collaborate with HBO.”
“We made ‘The Prince from Bubueci’ on the fly, but people go to see it, it gathers full halls. And for me it’s unexpected,” admits the director. – We made a good movie, but I did not think that so good, and the reviews are positive. We have a wonderful team. The cameraman Oleg Butnaru is one of the best directors in Moldova. He graduated from medical school, but he was always attracted by the picture, and little by little he got involved in the cameraman’s process. Oleg has already shot his third movie with me, and his picture is getting better and better. We have been working with the talented composer Sergei Kharlamov since 2013. In The Prince, he managed to combine cymbals, nai and African motifs – drums, voices.”
