(L-R) Kirill Emelyanov, Daniil Vorobyov and Olivier Rabourdin star in "Eastern Boys." Photo Credit: First Run Features.

(L-R) Kirill Emelyanov, Daniil Vorobyov and Olivier Rabourdin star in “Eastern Boys.” Photo Credit: First Run Features.

GALO: When he does that and the hotel manager retaliates, Boss is humiliated and he immediately loses control over the gang.

RC: Absolutely.

GALO: Was it pivotal for Boss to fall from grace? If circumstances were different, could the gang have survived without him?

RC: I think they can survive without him and that’s what he realized. At the end, Boss loses all of his family and his friends, including his girlfriend and his daughter. He’s lost his fatherhood. When he returns to Daniel’s apartment, Boss constructs two paradoxical feelings at the same time. You can assume he goes there out of revenge, or the way I think of it is, he’s trying to go back home. He’s very jealous of Marek because he doesn’t understand why he hasn’t been chosen himself. He’s supposed to be the master — he’s more handsome and he looks like James Dean.

GALO: Yes, he’s classically handsome.

RC: Maybe he has some sort of regret. That’s why I wanted to show him crying, because he has lost everything. For me, there are two dirty weapons that are used in the film. The first is before the party. Boss blackmails Daniel by accusing him of being a pedophile. He uses this because he has the law on his side, and he knows Daniel isn’t going to do anything. It’s really horrible, but it’s the way the gang manages to have money without prostituting themselves. At the end of the film, there is the second dirty weapon. Daniel knows he has the law on his side, so he calls the police and has the hotel raided. In Daniel and Marek’s relationship there is tenderness, but Daniel’s paternalism has always been there. Daniel is in his own country — he has the power and the money. He can make himself believe that he’s living some sort of love story, but at the same time, the domination is still there.

GALO: Daniel initially seeks Marek out because he’s attracted to him, but mostly because he’s extremely lonely. The audience sees him going to work and interacting with friends, and we also learn a small snippet about his past relationship. However, we never get a fully fleshed out understanding of who Daniel is. What is his backstory? From the outset, he seems like a man who has everything, but obviously there is something missing which is why he seeks Marek’s company. Do you think we all fall victim to loneliness at one point or another?

RC: Yes, I think he’s lonelier than what I expected. That’s why I put him in danger; that’s why he wants to do something risky. He’s so bored with his life. All of us, we are trained to build our lives in a particular way. We are trained to have a nice apartment, a nice relationship. And at some point, we want to broaden it.

GALO: Yes, out of boredom and monotony.

RC: Yes, that why he seeks a strong relationship — and a strong relationship, in my opinion, is with someone you don’t know at all, the unknown. It’s with someone who is really a stranger, a foreigner. I think a strong relationship is with someone you aren’t normally in contact with, because you are not in the same social circle or you don’t come from the same area. Or in this case, you don’t have the same language and you cannot speak together. For me, it’s more human, because you have to invent your own language to communicate. This language that you create embodies real desire and real humanity, because against all odds, you are trying to connect with someone, even if it’s complicated. If you want to get out of your own life, you must go really far for any type of metamorphosis. Boss helps Daniel with this because he creates this nightmare for him, which is also kind of a dream. Boss makes Daniel dance and move again, he makes him unashamed of his body and I loved the idea.

GALO: The most puzzling portion of the film for me was Daniel’s willingness to let Marek back in after the gang attacks him. Despite the sexual attraction, it’s so obvious that he doesn’t trust him; Marek even recognizes this. Why does Daniel allow their relationship to progress? Is it because of all the excitement that Marek and the gang bring into his life?

RC: I had a very long discussion with the set designer for the apartment. They wanted to put a lot of things on the walls and I said no. I don’t think Daniel is the type of person who puts a lot of things on the walls. So, when the gang steals everything from his apartment, it gives Daniel a clean slate. In my opinion, Boss had a good influence on Daniel, which he finds exciting.

GALO: In your opinion, what moment in the film was the one where Daniel and Marek’s relationship shifted from lovers to a more familial bond?

RC: There are three sex scenes in the film, and I wanted the scenes to be very different. In fact, sex has a different meaning at different moments in the film. For instance, the first scene is a real prostitution scene. It was very hard for me to shoot [it] because I thought it was very violent.

GALO: Yes, Marek just lay there, and it was very troubling to watch.

RC: I wanted to show them taking their clothes off, because they felt very bad at this point, especially Daniel who thought that it would be simple, but he realized it was not. The second time, it’s a much friendlier encounter.

GALO: Exactly, they have a much more mutual encounter the second time around. It’s not so one-sided.

RC: Absolutely, I think Marek is OK with gay sex, even though he might not actually be gay. He’s moved by the fact that this guy is so tender with him. For once in his life, someone wants and desires him. That’s why I was telling you about domination [before]. There is a possibility of romance because Daniel doesn’t know the story of Marek’s life.

GALO: Yeah, that he’s actually known as Rouslan.

RC: When Marek tells Daniel about his life, it seems fictitious — the unbelievable story of the Chechen war. It’s unbelievable for us because war like that isn’t believable. So when Marek tells him all of this, Daniel thinks that this lost child is bigger than him, stronger than him. His story is much more important than Daniel’s own story, which is nothing because he’s a lonely guy in a big flat. I think if clients knew prostitutes stories, it wouldn’t be so easy for them to engage with them. I’m not against prostitution, but I think lots of people who do prostitute [themselves], especially in Paris, do it because they are poor.

GALO: Yes, without question.

RC: So, because of that, it’s not free-will prostitution. When Daniel realizes that Marek isn’t actually the person he sees in front of him, it makes a romantic relationship impossible.

GALO: So that’s when it changes.

RC: And, of course, perhaps sex wasn’t so important by that point. When Marek tries to seduce Daniel, he doesn’t respond. Marek feels horrible because he feels like he isn’t desired, which means that he could potentially be dumped out in the street. So he’s concerned about the nature of their relationship if there will be no sex. He thinks that he’s only accepted because of sex. When Daniel is alone in his flat after he turns down Marek, I think he’s thinking that it may be too difficult to continue with the relationship. However, in the end, he decides something else.

GALO: He gives him his own room in the apartment.

RC: I love the idea that in the film, I don’t tell the spectator exactly what’s going on in the characters’ heads. For me and for the spectators, the characters are puzzles.

GALO: That’s what makes them real people, because in real life, you never know exactly what is going on in other people’s heads.

RC: Very true, we don’t even know our own motivations. So, for me, it’s more realistic to not know exactly where things are going. I like the idea that you can get lost in the film, not only with the storyline but also within the characters.

GALO: This is such an amazing piece to follow The Class (2008). Can you tell me anything about any upcoming projects that you are currently working on?

RC: I have two projects. I wanted to make a film in a future city in the countryside of France where people are wealthier than they are in the town, a place where there’s lots of poverty and too many people. Initially, the second project was about three women: a mother, daughter and grandmother. I wanted to film women because I film a lot of men. In Eastern Boys, there was just one woman — the hotel manager at the end. I wanted to do that, but it seems we’re going to have more money to do a film about an AIDS activist group in Paris in the 1990s; it’s a very sad film. I also wrote a script for a French female-film director, Rebecca Zlotowski, who is working with a major star for the film. I hope they will do a good job.

GALO: Fantastic, I will look out for the films. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. Congratulations on Eastern Boys. Again, it’s a beautiful film.

RC: Thank you.


Video courtesy of PeccadilloPictures.

Eastern Boys, which runs at 128-minutes with English subtitles, is currently playing in theaters. For a full list of screenings, please visit the First Run Features Web site by clicking here.