CHOSENA FILM BY JASMIN DIZDAR

Opens in UK Cinemas 3 March

Written and directed by Jasmin DizdarStarring Harvey Keitel, Luke Malby and Anna Ularu

Running time: 105 mins

 

Press Contact:Thomas Hewson – tom@fetch.fm

THE ULTIMATE WEAPON IS COURAGE

An epic tale of family, honor, vengeance and salvation.

Based on remarkable true events during World War Two, Sonson is a young Jewish Hungarian lawyer living under German occupation. Devastated when the German

authorities allow his ailing wife to die - and after they take away his sister-in-law Judith to a concentration camp, Sonson realises he can no longer sit on the sidelines of

conflict.

He joins the Hungarian resistance and sets out to rescue Judith - the start of an inspirational fight back against the increasingly desperate and dangerous Nazis in the

dying embers of the war, where Sonson will, in avenging the deaths of his people, save thousands of others.

“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

SYNOPSIS

Maine, USA. Present Day. MAX (10) plays chess with his great-grandfather PAPI (90’s) nagging him to help with an essay on heroes. Reluctant, Papi eventually tells him of Sonson, a Hungarian Jew in WW2.

Debrecen, Hungary. Winter 1943. SONSON is a former barrister who works in Jewish forced labour conscripts. His Wife, Florence, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

By Spring 1944 the Germans have invaded and Florence’s cancer has spread. She dies painfully, barred from medication. On her deathbed, Florence makes Sonson promise that he will look after her rebellious sister JUDITH. Sonson is approached by the local Hungarian resistance, looking for a man of his intellect and language skills, whom he reluctantly joins when he discovers Judith has been captured by the Nazis. Impersonating various SS officers he manages to kill prominent figures of the Nazi regime and inspire the local Hungarian Jews to fight back against their German oppressors.

Following a particularly bloody battle at the gates of a Jewish ghetto Sonson decides to travel to Poland to make good on his promise and trace Judith, who we have seen earlier escape from a train bound for the camps.

Once again, this time in Poland, Sonson joins forces with the local Jewish resistance and through guile, strength and courage he helps inspire the locals and seize control back from the increasingly desperate Nazis who are on full retreat from the Eastern Front and destroying everything in their path. At the end of a violent battle, outnumbered and underarmed, Sonson is almost killed. He is rescued and as life ebbs away he dreams of his darling wife Florence, of a happier, romantic time together. This, and the arrival of Judith instills new strength in Sonson and together with the remaining Polish resistance manage to free their Polish town, forcing the Germans to surrender through incredible acts of bravery.

The liberating Russians arrive, honouring the Jewish fighters and Sonson is praised as a hero, even as an agent of God. Sonson’s future brings the promise of new love with Judith.

As Papi concludes this heroic story he warns the new generation that such atrocities may happen again. A curious Max asks Papi how he knew Sonson, but Papi shrugs off a clear answer, stating that he himself had a very quiet, unassuming war. Max leaves with plenty of impressive material for his essay, and Papi begins his prayers. In the background, photographs betray the fact that Papi is in fact Sonson.

SHOOTING LOCATIONS Bucharest, Romania and New York, USA

SHOOTING PERIOD August-September 2014

Director JASMIN DIZDAR

What attracted you to Gabriel de Mercur’s script “Chosen”?

What I liked about the script was the fact that it was inspired by a true story about a Jewish man who stole Nazi uniforms and used them to enter Nazi headquarters in Hungary during the Second World War. Although it’s based on true events, the script is written in a kind of loose fairy-tale form; an old man narrating a story that occurred 70 years ago, to his 13- year-old grandson.

Just as you settle into this story about the ordinary couple who are in love, expecting their first child, the wife tragically dies with the unborn baby inside her and the story

suddenly swerves off from this sensual intimate tale into war epic action territory and our main character suddenly transforms from a quiet and humble family man into a Hungarian hero. At first, that contradiction confused me. The idea that an ordinary everyday Jewish man would dare to take on the almighty German Army was not familiar to me. I was expecting a modest version of “Schindler’s List”, depicting poor people standing helplessly whilst beaten to death or executed in cold blood by cruel Nazis.

But as I started re-reading the script, I realized that the old man is narrating it to a kid who still has no mature concept of life. How is a 13 year-old living in 21st century New York going to relate to those strange things that took place 70 years ago in some faraway country like Hungary? The only way he can relate to them is if you introduce a kind of fairy-tale element to it - if he tells him the story using time-honored characters of heroes and villains. His old great-grandpa asks the boy: “What do you know about the heroes? These guys in your video games, they’re not real heroes.” By doing this, he sparks the interest of the boy.

As a filmmaker I just love that combination of truth, naïveté and imagination, which is characterised in my previous films. Although I admire films like "Schindler's List", "Saving Private Ryan" and "Downfall", where every single detail is based on the historic fact, I personally find facts too restrictive, obvious and lacking the magic of cinema. You know exactly what is going to happen next. I prefer stories which are inspired by, but not a slave to history, filtered through the filmmakers’ imagination and given a personal touch. Such a film is “Chosen”.

What I liked about the screenplay is that it’s not trying to make the audience feel sick and distressed with familiar Holocaust imagery – skeleton-like starved victims executed by evil Nazis. Instead the writer opens the script with a very sensual and romantically intimate story about love between two ordinary people. I found it fascinating that Gabriel chose to tell us a love story about a Jewish Romeo and Juliet trapped in the wrong time and wrong place.

Another thing that attracted me to it is the fact that Sonson’s wife, Florence, dies along with her unborn baby, from a natural illness because the local doctor, Sonson's former friend, is unable to treat her because she is Jewish. The doctor is concerned for the safety of his own family.

The old man narrates a line over Sonson staring at his wife’s grave: "He did not know where to go and what to do”. This line expresses my own feelings when I was burying my mother. She also died prematurely in Bosnia due to poor medical help. Sonson's wife was more a victim of ethnic and racial tensions in Debrecen than of the Nazis. And nothing more enrages one than a betrayal by one’s own once-trusted relatives or a

friend just because you belong to a different ethnic group. The inner rage that Sonson carries inside him throughout the film is very much like my own inner rage.

I also love the fact that at the end of the story he refuses to act as a hero. He is not triumphant, he is not celebrating victory like all the others around him, he his men take the spotlight as he retreats into the forest and back into the anonymity from where he came. And he sits there, alone, tired of killing, tired of hatred and human misery. Sonson simply desires to be left with his beautiful memories - which is, in essence, the only valuable thing we have.

How did you go on about translating the script into your own vision? How did you work with the writer during pre-production?

The writer, an incredibly knowledgeable historian and former international lawyer, was generally resistant to script alterations – understandable, given that the amount of research he’d done and that the story is personal to him too. But he did allow me to contribute to a degree, expanding and deepening certain characters and scenes - as long as I don’t cut anything out. Pre-production started quickly as we did not want to miss summer’s long daylight. I did much of the script brainstorming between casting sessions and during location scouting. In my youth, I made a lot of guerrilla-style shorts, often on the run, camera in one hand, pen and paper in the other. Multitasking is a default setting for me.

The script is made of three stories, unified by the fact that our main character, young Sonson, appears in each of them. Each story has its own genre, milieu and set of different characters. Two of the stories are set in Hungary and one in Poland. On top of all of that there is a fourth story that takes place in present day New York, USA, where an old man (Harvey Keitel) narrates his story to his great-grandson on the eve of his Bar Mitzvah. My main focus was to ensure there was a clear dramatic and logical flow between these stories.

I was already familiar with multi-stories projects from my previous film, “Beautiful People”, but “Chosen”, considering its Second World War period and Hungarian setting, was an interesting new challenge. The first story is an intimate love story between Sonson and his darling wife, Florence. The second story follows Sonson, who just lost his wife and his unborn baby, transformed from a quietly tolerant and humble law-abiding citizen into a leader of the local resistance movement. The third story takes us all the way to Poland where Sonson meets completely new set of characters – Polish Jewish rebels.

We developed an idea to introduce a new character into the story, Florence’s young sister Judith. Whilst older sister Florence is an angel of a woman, a good conservative wife devoted to her husband, her young sister Judith is the complete opposite - a born rebel, reckless trouble-maker and political activist. On her deathbed, Florence asks Sonson to make a solemn promise to protect Judith. Sonson makes his pledge, which he now must keep. By heightening this promise, there is a strong dramatic reason for Sonson to leave Hungary, his homeland, and make his epic journey across Europe to Poland where he hopes to find Judith and fulfil the promise.

“Chosen” has quite a large international cast. How did you cast and direct such vast ensemble of so many different nationalities?

Regardless of where we originally come from, when you work with talented people and honest professionals no language or nationality barriers will ever get in the way. All my professional life I worked as a foreigner with foreigners, directing people in languages which are foreign to me and I learnt that the more diversity, the better the film is. I love a grand and diverse scale, Hieronymus Bosch and Bruegel paintings, large ensemble films like “Twelve Angry Men”, “Nashville”, ”Ragtime”, “Pulp Fiction”, stories where the entire cast is the protagonist and every single character, however small, has a very important part to play in a story’s jigsaw puzzle. I love it when all kinds of strange and different characters mingle together, appear and disappear unpredictably and mysteriously. I found all that in “Chosen”.

The script also has youthful casual recklessness, rebellion, mocking uniformed authority and fractured narrative which is very characteristic of French, Polish and Czech New Wave films like Andrej Wajda’s “Ashes and Diamonds”, Roman Polanski’s “Knife in the Water”, Jan Nemec’s “Diamonds of the Night” and Arthur Penn’s “Bonnie and Clyde”. These are the films I was thinking of while preparing, casting and shooting “Chosen” - those 60’s hippy-ish, jagged, edgy characters, fractured narrative and youthful free spirit in the scenes when Sonson practices his Nazi demeanor in front of the mirror or when Judith escapes from the train.

In fact, I paid a little personal homage to "Diamonds of the Night" which opens with two teenage Jews escaping a train bound for the concentration camps. In the second half of "Chosen" Florence’s younger sister Judith, played by the incredible Romanian actress Ana Ularu, escapes from train. I didn't have time or narrative space to make her escape in one ten minute tracking shot as Nemec did. Instead, Judith’s escape had to be done in a dozen dramatic seconds. Nevertheless, the same rebellious spirit is there.

We first started casting Jewish resistance fighters in London. The overall preference was for resistance fighters to be played by English actors so I told my casting director to

think of actors who have that Slavic/Eastern European facial aesthetic. I saw Sam Churchill waiting for an audition and looking so presidential - like a statue of Abraham Lincoln with his distinctive black beard - and I knew straightaway he could be our Polish resistance leader. I had no idea what sort of actor he is, I didn’t know him at all just as I did not know most of the actors I cast in “Chosen”.

I gave the part of the Hungarian resistance leader to Tomasz Aleksander, a powerful actor with Hungarian descendants, always appearing thoughtful, like one of those student leaders who always take themselves too seriously and are first to give speeches in front of people. He needed to keep pestering Sonson to help them so he had to have an element of a “weak leader” who loves publicity and position but when the chips are down he lets others take the charge. Casting such characters must not be overlooked, because when you put them next to the main hero they give the hero a greater stature and importance in the film. Each Shakespeare play has such characters, from Mercutio to Falstaff. I asked him to grow a period moustache, which made him look cheap-leader-like, without slipping into a self-parody.

For the lead, I liked Luke Mably straightaway. English, but resident in Los Angeles, Luke sounded honest, keen and mysterious and a kind of his own man. Luke’s natural Robert De Niro-ish presence, virility and yet possessing a charming way of talking was exactly what the part needed. I got to know him better during the run-up to the shoot where I discovered his mercurial character, which was like a dream come true for me as a director. We were very fortunate to stumble on Luke Mably with his “Raging Bull” natural aura and being such a dedicated die-hard actor who takes his job incredibly seriously. During preproduction Luke spent hours each day with his semi-automatic Mauser constantly practicing holding it, pulling it out of its holder, and coming up with new ways of handling the weapon.

He is an absolute perfectionist, every detail had to be perfected and mastered in his performance. He worked tirelessly on the script and his character. Almost every other night he would phone my hotel room in Bucharest and asked me if he could come down for a chat. Then he would tell me how he would develop this or that scene in which he appears and would it be okay if he changes this or that line slightly or wears this hat instead of that hat. I approved almost everything because either his instinct was correct or I just did not want him to lose his amazing enthusiasm for the part.

I had a wonderful time working with the actors on “Chosen”, allowing them a degree of freedom to take direct part in creating their own performances. They felt free to contribute which helped their performances and if they occasionally went off piste, so what, we are all humans, we all want more.

What about the Romanian cast?

I especially recall meeting Diana Cavallioti for the part of Sonson’s wife Florence. I asked Luke to join us. The very moment I saw them together, I could see them gingerly looking at each other, both happy in each other’s company. During the rehearsals I started to worry, I didn’t want them to fall in love too early and than fall out of love during the shoot. During the shoot, for some reason, Diana could not stop laughing at Luke. Each time he would come near her, kiss her or hug her she would burst into this spontaneous explosive laughter, which made us laugh too. We would set the shot, start shooting and suddenly, in the middle of the shot, Diana would break into another loud laughter, which then make Luke laugh too. I would come out from behind my monitor with my arms spread saying: “Guys, come on!” Luke would shrug his shoulder smiling. She would say: “I’m sorry, I can’t help it.” But she could never tell us why he made her smile so much. We made so many shots of them laughing together and looking so happy in each other’s arms, it was very moving during editing. It definitely was not acting. It was real joy. I was very lucky to have these two actors with such contrasting ethnic and cultural backgrounds and yet with such spontaneous and natural chemistry. They looked made for each other and maybe if they were living in the same town they would be a couple. It’s just a shame that she had to die so early in the film and we could not make more scenes between them because such unique chemistry is gold dust for cinema.

On the other hand, Ana Ularu as Judith looked rather downtrodden and alienated when with them and at first she had this off-screen “irritation” with Luke. It worked perfectly for the film because she was supposed to be frustrated with Sonson for being such a coward and letting his people down. Sonson doesn’t want her in his house because she only brings trouble. He tells his wife that they are expecting a baby and they have to be extra careful. After Diana’s character dies, Ana and Luke started to became better friends offscreen. I guess it’s because Diana was not around and Luke felt more relaxed with Ana. The film ends with them in each other’s arms and they look so comfortable with each other.

There was a big rivalry between Luke Mably and Sam Churchill, who played Ezra, the leader of the Polish-Jewish resistance, which is again exactly what I needed to see on screen. I remember when Sam arrived for his first day of the shoot dressed as Nazi soldier and escorting a Nazi General out onto the ghetto street together with Luke as Sonson. I was certain it should be easy to shoot that scene because we have had control of all elements, it was exterior, no stunts, beautiful day and all we needed to do is work on camera and dialogue. How wrong I was? It was one of the most difficult of the whole complex days.

Luke and Sam stood side by side, looking in opposite directions. One could sense alpha male rivalry between two natural leaders. Luke was showing that he is the lead character in the movie and has more power in saying what he wants than Sam. He says something about Sam’s lines which triggered Sam’s instant “mind your own business, mate” response and soon they look like they are about to square up. Luke Jerdy (the actor who plays another Polish fighter) stood between them, totally overshadowed by these two giants, trying to calm them down. I needed that rivalry on the screen and I was urging my incredibly talented Director of Photography Balazs Bolygo to start shooting each time they smirked at each other. Of course, Ezra would not accept some strange wacko Hungarian Jew coming to his neighborhood and leading his own people just as Sonson is not the type who can be told what to do by anyone. It was another happy accident that served the film.

Nothing works better for the film than the cast and crew feeding off each other. After I did a take with them, I would complement Luke’s performance. I could see Sam taking deep breaths and gearing up himself for the next take as if a boxer who can’t wait for the next round to start. Sam would then shine in that take and I would say: “Cut! Sam! Thank you, man!” Luke would instantly turn and angrily stride back to the starting point yelling that he was not happy with this one. And so on. Creative rivalry.

In the scene of the Jewish synagogue, I had to help them share the same speech. Sam wanted to be one to finish it. Luke said he is the one who must deliver the final line. I said to Sam he can have a couple of more lines and Luke will have only one line, last line. They settled on that. I ran into a similar problem with the last battle speech which Sonson is supposed to deliver to the resistance fighters in the morning before the ultimate fight. Sam objected. He said since he is Polish he was the one who should logically deliver that important speech to his Polish resistance fighters. Why would they listen to some unknown man from Hungary? He was right logically speaking but dramatically it was Sonson who, as the protagonist, must deliver that speech. So, in order to satisfy both, logic and drama, I suggested a small extra speech for Sam. I told him: “Can you please write a new speech for yourself and we will have you in the film delivering it to your Polish fighters the night before the last battle. Luke will give his own speech to your fighters the following morning. Okay?” They both nodded. We added an extra scene after Sam delivers his evening speech: Ezra tells Sonson that his contacts could not find any trace of Judith, meaning she is dead. This is a biggest blow to Sonson after his wife died. I needed the audience to dramatically root for poor Sonson when he looks down, disgusted and angry, knowing now that he will not be able fulfil the promise he gave to his wife. Then there will be a final turnaround when Judith unexpectedly reappears, first in his dream then in reality.

During the shoot of the last battle sequence Luke and Sam started becoming friendly. At one point I had an argument with Sam and he walked out on me. Luke immediately ran after him and a few minutes later Sam came and apologized to me. I started laughing. Sam was confused, he said: ”Why are you laughing? I’ve just said sorry to you.” I said: “It’ okay, forget it. Let’s shoot!” I was laughing because in the next scene Sam will be saving Sonson’s life after Sonson gets badly injured and now Sam and Luke stood by each other like two lovebirds. We went on to shoot Ezra saving Sonson’s life then Ezra covers Sonson as Sonson attacks the tanks, shooting at Nazis behind Sonson. Then in the forest, after the last battle, Sam as Ezra comes to tap lonely Sonson on the shoulder. He did it with such gentleness, I just could not believe my eyes. Only a couple of weeks previously they were creating such a charged mood on the set I thought we would have to call the police and now they sat next to each other looking like true brothers-in-arms. It’s strange how sometimes destiny takes its own course and works for the film.

How did you approach directing the scenes with the Jewish girls being forced to dance in their underwear then raped, and why is that dance scene so important for you and the film?

Rape scenes were in the script. The carousel dance element was added before shooting. Much of it was spontaneous. I love not knowing what actors come up with next. I described roughly what was needed and then just let them get on with it. I thought the film needed Balkan energy. We need to see that sort of self-destructive and reckless Balkan mentality considering that half of the film takes place in Hungary. If you did not see the preceding scenes in which the girls are arrested and put in the prison, you would think it was some kind of Greek wedding. I made sure that during the shooting of that scene on the set were only Balkan people (cast and crew). And since we are all Balkaneros, everyone in front of the camera knew exactly what to do without me needing to say anything. My two Romanian Assistant Directors had the best fun during shooting of that scene, they couldn’t stop teasing me about it for weeks later. I’ve been a soldier twice myself in the former Yugoslavian Army. I know what it means to be a soldier imprisoned by daily drills and routine and going to bed with your gun under your pillow. Suddenly there are all these women lined up in the dormitory. They are not going to just jump on them and rape them straightaway. They’ll stage a party. They’ll have a dance, have a laugh and pretend to be their boyfriends.

Then there is their captain Havas who understands his men are a bunch of hicks. He knows the Nazis would not care less if the Jewish girls are abused. It’s a win/win situation for him. So, he lets his men undress the girls and have a crazy Balkan dance with them. I wanted the choreography to have a circus quality, like when the horseman whips his white horses and makes them run in the ring while monkeys ride them. I don’t

why but I kept thinking of Fellini’s drunken party sequence at the end of “La Dolce Vita” when Marcello Mastroianni rides a drunken provincial girl like on a horse. It’s a scene about the immoral and decadent Roman elite losing their minds. End of empire madness. Somehow I felt the same about our carousel dance scene and I included that sort of mindless and pointless symbol of human stupidity. After the dance the girls are taken into separate rooms and raped. I was not keen on showing the soldiers raping the girls but needed to portray Captain Havas raping two girls simultaneously.

Why two? To double horrific impact on the audience?

No, it’s a racist attack. He is not raping them to satisfy himself. He is raping to destroy their youth and beauty and everything that is nice in them, which is the only valuable thing they still possess. If he could, he would rape three girls at the same time. He knows he cannot steal their natural potential but at least he can ruin it and make them morally corrupt, turn them into future whores like he is. That was very important to show maybe because of the Bosnian rape camps during the civil war where the same crime was committed for the same reason and also to show that after more than half a century since the end of the Second World War humans did not learn much.

After all that dust, tanks and explosions in Bucharest, suddenly you are in New York, directing Harvey Keitel.

Harvey is of Eastern European descendent, his mother is actually Romanian and father Polish. He fitted to our film’s Eastern European ethnic landscape like a glove. He comes from Lee Strasberg’s school of method acting, just like Marlon Brando, Pacino, De Niro, Hoffman and Streep. He worked on the role for a month. I come from Stanislavski’s school of acting, which is quite different from Lee Strasberg. I am more than happy with directing an actor with Lee Strasberg’s method - but it can be daunting.

He’s a tremendously genuine, lifelike and funnier character. His eyes sparkled when he finished his story as he first looks at the sea then at Max. What a face, what a nostalgic expression, a cry for a beautiful past. Given some freedom he came up with brilliant lines like: “What do you know about heroes?” Max answers: “A little?” Harvey: “A little? What do they teach you in your Hebrew school? A little? Well, there is far more you should know about heroes than the little they teach you about in your Hebrew school…”. Then he gave us another amazing scene in the doorway when he hugs Max goodbye. And such a humble and moving performance of his Jewish prayer at the end.

The first day of the shoot was okay, although not as good I hoped or wished. I thought I could have got more of the kid and definitely more from Harvey. We never rehearsed anything before the shoot, we never had any discussions as usually is the practice,

Harvey didn’t really know me as a director and didn’t have chance to try things beforehand and it showed. After the first day of the shoot, I was thinking I had to come up with something new that would help him open up a bit. Americans are great job doers. They find great pleasure in robotically doing their jobs whilst I find that attitude suffocating. I feel much more creatively inspired when people around me think and act freely. Perhaps that’s why I was not comfortable on the first day of my American shoot.

And finally, this is your first film which you did not write yourself. How did you, as someone who is regarded as European auteur with personal style and vision, manage to fit in this new filmmaking format: parenting someone else’s baby? You never know how things will end up, regardless of whether you are directing your own or someone else’s script. The final outcome depends on so many elements and so many people. Once you agree to direct you just jump off the cliff into the river and you keep swimming with the current or sometimes against the current and hoping it will take you somewhere nice. I remember the producer often reminding me that “Chosen” is primarily a mainstream movie and less an auteur film. My answer to that always was, any bad or boring film is not going to be seen by anyone regardless who directed it, Jean-Luc Godard or Steven Spielberg.

In my book the top priority of any film director should be making the best possible film within the circumstances. Then there is this cultural difference between Western (UK, USA) and Eastern European understanding of film drama. Americans and Anglo-Saxons often want their films to be clean and tidy, compact and polished like hospital floors. Eastern Europeans prefer it dirty, loose, rough edges, crude and chaotic, which is in the West seen as a mistake that confuses people. I lived and worked in both parts of the world and feel comfortable with both aesthetics.

Watching Iñárritu’s film “The Revenant” recently I found it to bear surprising similarities to “Chosen”: both Leonardo DiCaprio and Luke Mably play tragic heroes and survivors, both lose their families (wife and a child), both go through extraordinary personal journeys after losing these loved ones and survive against all odds. “The Revenant” cost 130 million dollars to make and is a global box office hit and award-winner. And it is also a Hollywood production of a typical auteur film with strong director’s personal style. It clearly proves that it does not matter who you are as a filmmaker, auteur or not, as long as you know how to get what you want to get. Whilst directing “Chosen” I was never thinking of myself as an auteur who must defend some imaginary auteur’s vision with this film or as a mainstream filmmaker for hire who is making blockbuster. There is no auteur’s method. I directed an entertaining, powerful and humane script, hopefully making the finished film relate to everyone.

Screenwriter GABRIEL de MECUR:

When I came across the history of Holocaust, it obviously disturbed me profoundly. I could not understand, how it could have happened in 20th Century Europe, whereby 6 million innocent people: men, women, and children were brutally murdered? The world was silent as an industrial extermination of Jewish people took place. I was fortunate to meet some of these people who managed to survive.

They were part of the brave youth who stood up and risked they life to fight against their tormentors. Clearly there were youth who understood the call of the time. Meeting these individuals and hearing their life experiences of what they went through touched me deeply. My heart goes out to the innocent millions who could not defend themselves. The children who realised that their parents who were always their protectors suddenly were left themselves unprotected. I could hear the cries of children, women and men from the gas chambers, the way they were executed by the beasts in the German Army.

The way how the Hungarian people collaborated with the German occupiers to deport Jewish citizens. I could see with my spiritual eyes, the way they were expelled from their homes, transported to death camp. I have created “Chosen” because I wanted to document experiences of ordinary people, bring them alive and show to the world the atrocity of what they went through which should have never been forgotten.

I spent several years on research, and more than eight years writing numerous drafts of the screenplay. Unfortunately the tragedy is that we can still see in our times the germ of anti-Semitism existent after 75 years but in different forms. I sincerely hope that this story, like other similar stories will teach future generation what the hate could lead us to, and teach us how to live our life, even if something is impossible, the obstacles can be overcome by hard work, faith and courage.

Producer MICHAEL RILEY:

They were looking for a location for the final battle scene and the initial proposition by the location manager was the the backlot of the biggest film studio in Romania. The problem with that was that it was too small for the epic battle scene the director had in mind and also we they couldn’t destroy it, of course. So they were given the option to shoot on the grounds of a former paint factory, which had several period buildings and allowed a lot of space to play around in. Of course, we had to hire a team of health and safety officers, to clear the area for shooting. The producers made sure there were no toxic gases that could endanger the crew. They did however, struggle with the heat and the dust, but the scene looked brilliant.

Like any small budget production, they had to adapt to the existing resources, which tested everybody’s skills and dedication. The Art Department, for instance, did a terrific job at converting two Russian Tiger Tanks into German Panzer Tanks. One particular location gave the entire team quite a scare. While shooting an exterior, on the edge of a forest, Jasmin wondered off into the forest to clear his head for the difficult scene ahead and because it had rained the night before, he slipped and gave himself quite a nasty wound. Worried that he may have broken his leg, the producers rushed him to the nearest hospital. After an extremely tense half an hour, they were told that he is fine, no broken bones. Jasmin was very excited to go back straight away, which is very characteristic of his get up to go nature.

Romania is a fantastic place to shoot in, it has every possible location you might need, yet it is increasingly hard to find period buildings and streets in Bucharest, due to the economic boost, where every ancient corner is adorned with bars and funky cafes. The studios we shot at gave us some information which we took as a good omen, namely that the office we worked out of during preproduction was a house specially built for Franco Zeffirelli when he shot there.

And, as ever, it’s part of my job to protect the wellbeing of the crew. Even down to their morning rituals. For example, during the shoot in Romania, the crew and cast were staying at what was recommended to be one of the best hotels in Bucharest. One day the unit had an extremely early call time but because it was so early the hotel denied us our orange juice before we set off, a relatively easy task to accomplish task. ”The kitchen opens in 20 minutes” apparently. After a five-minute heated conversation regarding the rules of the hotel, I decided to move everyone to a different hotel that evening, which proved to be much better. You don’t mess with people’s drinks, especially at 5 in the morning. It’s part of the producer’s job to do such things…

BIOGRAPHIES

Luke Mably – SONSON

Luke was, for a long time, associated by fans with the charming yet unassuming prince he played in romantic comedy “The Prince and Me” and “The Prince and Me 2: The Royal Wedding”. His hard work ethic and meticulous search for the essence of the characters he portrays, along with a Marlon Brando kind of ruggedness, landed him the lead part in several features, such as “Exam”, “Reign of the General” and, recently, war drama “Chosen”, by award-winning director Jasmin Dizdar. He had supporting parts in films such as Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” and Brian Cook’s “Color me Kubrick”.

A successful actor in film and TV (“NCIS: New Orleans”, Fox channel’s “The Gates”, where he played the lead once more, “Combat Hospital”), Luke always took on roles in independent theatre, in production such as “Festen”, “The Breakfast Club” or “Faust”, a natural choice given his education at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama. London born and raised, Luke is currently living in Los Angeles.

Ana Ularu – JUDITH

Born and educated in Bucharest Romania, Ana started out as a child actor in French television productions. She went on to star in the stage adaptation of Nabokov's "Lolita" at age 16 and through that acclaimed performance started a prolific film career, with more than 25 feature film titles to her name.

After graduation from the National University of Film and Drama Studies, in 2012 she was a Berlinale Shooting Star for Romania. Her most recent endeavors are Susanne Bier's "Serena", where she stars opposite Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, a guest starring role in the Showtime series "The Borgias", Pinewood Pictures' "Camera Trap", upcoming thriller "Thursday" as well as Italian Sci-Fi "Index Zero" which had its World Premiere at the Rome Film Festival in 2014.

Her performance as Matilda in Bogdan George Apetri's “Outbound” garnered her numerous awards for Best Actress at first class festivals. Other recent films include Daniele Vicari's ‘Diaz' and Francis Ford Coppola's 'Youth Without Youth’. In 2004, Ularu was awarded a Best Actress award by the Romanian Filmmakers' Guild and Actress of the Year by the Romanian Film Critics' Association.

Theatre credits include leading roles in Bulandra Theatre's "The Good Person of Sechwan", National Operetta Theatre of Bucharest's productions of Threepenny Opera' Odeon Theatre of Bucharest's production of 'The Epic of Gilgames' and numerous other plays including 'The Trilogy of the Atrides'; 'Measure for Measure'. On Romanian television Ularu starred in the first season of the television series 'One Step Forward'. She is currently filming the leading role of The Wicked Witch of the West in NBC’s highly anticipated series ‘Emerald City’.

Harvey Keitel – PAPI

To pigeonhole Harvey Keitel as a master of edgy degenerates and killers would have dismissed the actor’s many successes with surly husbands, benign cops and intrepid detectives. His prolific career began with memorable roles in Martin Scorsese character studies, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.

He then worked with many renowned European directors such as Ettore Schola, Bertrand Tavernier, Lina Wertmuller, Theo Angelopolous. An Academy Award- nominated supporting role in Bugsy heralded a new beginning for Keitel, and he became a favorite on the indie film scene of the 1990s through his association with Quentin Tarantino cult classics; Mr. White in Reservoir Dogs (which won Mr. Keitel the independent film award), and The Wolf in Pulp Fiction.

He also had several successes when he chose to tap his inner soft side in Jane Campion’s The Piano, but by far, he was the go-to guy for potentially explosive everymen, grizzled police force veterans and G-men in both subtle indies and gun-blazing big budget adventures alike. His harrowing performance as a derailed New York City police officer in Bad Lieutenant, for which he won the Independent Spirit award for best actor, certified his legendary status amongst his peers.

Keitel was raised in Brooklyn, NY where he joined the Marines at age 16 and served overseas in the Middle East. When he returned home, he began to pursue an interest in acting, eventually landing stage roles in summer stock, repertory, and the fringes of off-off Broadway. He made his off Broadway debut in Sam Shepard’s Up to Thursday in 1965 and two years later began his association with Scorsese when he answered a newspaper ad placed by the then-NYU student director. Scorsese cast him in Who’s That Knocking at My Door?, which evolved from a student short to Scorsese’s well-received feature debut. Keitel went on to make a strong impression with a breakout role as the director’s alter ego in Mean Streets.

Keitel’s long list of additional films include The Duellists, Fingers, Blue Collar, Deathwatch, The Border, Wise Guys, The Pick-Up Artist, The The Two Jakes, Smoke, Clockers, From Dusk Till Dawn, Cop Land, Three Seasons, Holy Smoke, U-571, Little Nicky, The Grey Zone, Red Dragon, National Treasure, Be Cool, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Inglorious Basterds, Little Fockers, Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and Grand Budapest Hotel and Youth. Keitel resides in New York, NY.

Jasmin Dizdar – DIRECTOR

Jasmin started directing as an adolescent in Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, making fifteen short documentaries, drama and experimental films, winning eleven awards at local and national film festivals. His last Bosnian short film BUTTERFLY DANCE got him into the prestigious film academy FAMU in Prague. His graduation film AFTER SILENCE won the Best Director award.

His book about Czech-American director Milos Forman - Audition for a Director was also published at this time. After moving to London he wrote screenplays for the BBC

and a radio play for BBC Radio 4. Soon after, Jasmin wrote and directed his first feature film BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE. which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where the film won the Un Certain Regard prize for best film. The film became a hit with international audiences and critics, particularly in the UK, Spain, Scandinavia, Australia and USA, where it was compared to films like MASH and Catch 22. It currently broadcasts regularly on TV channels around the world.

Jasmin’s film MAMMA ROMA contributed to the omnibus feature film LES EUROPEENS. Here Jasmin stays faithful to his personal themes of humanism, egalitarian individualism and spiritual freedom. He has written screenplays for HBO, Channel Four and the BFI and has collaborated with other filmmakers on projects such as the recent Irish hit AS IF I AM NOT THERE. Also a well regarded film theoretician and film academic, Jasmin has lectured in Eastern European Cinema at Warwick University and as a film tutor at London Film School.

Gabriel de Mercur – SCREENWRITER

A former lawyer and history lecturer of Canadian extraction, Gabriel is a playwright who has written extensively for the theatre. Extremely well-travelled Gabriel has met many survivors of the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, has visited Auschwitz and other camps and is an expert in the Holocaust. Gabriel was greatly affected by the brutal and inhumane acts committed by the German Army under Adolf Hitler.

In his research, he extensively examined the Holocaust, where innocent civilians were slaughtered and exterminated in all parts of occupied Europe, and looked into the ways in which the ordinary people worked together with the Nazis to fulfil their objectives. The more he worked on this project, the more it affected him.

In CHOSEN, he portrays the ways in which people of the Jewish faith struggled and stood up against their persecutors against all odds, till the very end. He wrote this script so that future generations will find it difficult to forget that humanity is capable of unlimited barbarity.

Michael Riley – PRODUCER

Michael directed a number of short films and TV dramas before settling into feature film production. He co-founded the London-based production company Sterling Pictures in 1995 and has become one of the more experienced producers in the country. His feature filmography began with Paul Hills’ coming-of-age drama BOSTON KICKOUT, which won numerous awards at film festivals including San Sebastian and Valencia.

This was followed by a succession of feature films including RESPECT - a cross-cultural love story, Allan Niblo’s quirky romcom, LOOP, with Susannah York, the gangster spoof HARD MEN starring Vincent Regan, Lee Ross and “Mad” Frankie Fraser and OUT OF DEPTH - a thriller with Sean Maguire, Rita Tushingham and Isla Fisher.

Michael is one of the youngest ever producers of a major BBC drama serial. From 1997 to 2001 he developed and produced the 10x50 min family saga IN A LAND OF PLENTY. The epic family saga won Best European Drama at the Koln Conference was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award and remains one of the most critically acclaimed UK television dramas ever made. His next feature film, Joe Tucker’s irreverent black comedy LAVA, was released by Universal Pictures in the UK to great notices and screened at numerous international film festivals.

Then came the innovative cult horror film VAMPIRE DIARY which won Best Film at the Milan International Film Festival and the drama/ thriller OUTLANDERS (Winner: Best Film at Braga Cine IFF and Best Film at CinePobre IFF). He also completed A GIRL AND A GUN starring Ian Hart, one of the UK’s most successful short films of all time in global downloads. Michael also acted as co-producer on the comedy/drama THE MAN WHO WOULD BE QUEEN with Nathalie Press, and produced Gary Love’s urban thriller SUGARHOUSE, starring Ashley Walters, Andy Serkis and Steve Mackintosh released theatrically in the UK, following a Gala Screening at the Edinburgh IFF. This was followed by WAITING, the hypnotically beautiful Turner Prize nominated installation film shot in Kenya for artist ZARINA BHIMJI. In 2008 he produced the documentary CHINA’S WILD WEST. Filmed secretly in China’s remote Taklamakan Desert, the film received its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and has gone on to screen at most of the world’s foremost international documentary film festivals, winning Best Film at the 2009 Anuu-ru Aboro International Film Festival.

He then co-produced Jackie Oudney’s romantic drama FRENCH FILM starring Eric Cantona and Hugh Bonneville and acted as UK Producer on the Canadian film THE GOOD TIMES ARE KILLING ME starring Kelly Rowan and Rupert Graves. In the summer of 2010 Michael filmed in Madagascar for the documentary ZANAKA, studying Malagasy traditional family life. In 2010/11 Michael produced the noir/comedy HARD BOILED SWEETS starring Ian Hart and co-produced the dark kidnap thriller DEVIATION starring Danny Dyer. He completed the noir thriller SCAR TISSUE being sold by Little Film Company in LA and Paul Hyett’s controversial directorial debut THE SEASONING HOUSE (Opening Film of Film4 FrightFest 2012, winner of Critic’s Prize 2013 Fantasporto Film Festival, winner of Critic’s Prize at Denver’s 2013 Mile High Horror Film Festival), released theatrically in the UK by Kaleidoscope.

He then produced hard-hitting satire ZERO producing alongside Nicolas Roeg and was Executive Producer alongside Neil Marshall on the supernatural chiller SOULMATE (Winner Best Screenplay Fantasporto 2013) from director Axelle Carolyn. He recently completed the WW2 thriller CHOSEN starring Harvey Keitel and is currently in post production on the sailing drama CROWHURST, based on the tragic true story on a British amateur yachtsman Donald Crowhurst as well as HERETIKS, the new Paul Hyett film, a supernatural thriller set in the 1660‘s, starring Claire Higgins and Michael Ironside, also currently in post- production. Michael is a member of BAFTA and The European Film Academy, and is an alumni of the MEDIA II Film Business School in Ronda.

© 2015 Sterling Pictures (Chosen) Ltd