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KARLOVY VARY 2021 Competition

Lisa Bierwirth • Director of Prince

"Entering the Congolese diaspora is something I found very challenging"

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- The German director discusses the inspiration behind her feature debut, its making and the challenges she faced

Lisa Bierwirth • Director of Prince

Prince [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lisa Bierwirth
film profile
]
, screened in competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, tells the story of a German art curator about to lose her job in Frankfurt who falls in love with a Congolese immigrant without papers, after they meet by chance. Director Lisa Bierwirth talks about her inspirations and the challenges in portraying this romance.

Cineuropa: What was the inspiration for Prince?
Lisa Bierwirth: My mum very much inspired me. The film is not the reconstruction of my mother's relationship, but she was married to a man from Kinshasa, Congo, many years ago. And despite all the problems they had, they were a really dazzling, funny couple, not only in their differences but also in their humour and the dynamic they had. That gave me the inspiration and courage to tell this story. 

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What do you mean by courage?
Entering the Congolese diaspora is something I found very challenging. It's hard to tell a perspective that is not going to be mine. Speaking to my mother's ex-husband, he was so on board when I said I wanted to make a film about a German art curator's relationship with a Congolese businessman. 

What was the reason to set this story in Frankfurt?
From a migration perspective, it is interesting. There’s this district around the train station, which has the highest density of nationalities. You have the European Central Bank there and you have one of the biggest stock markets in the world. The money is all around and at the same time, you have this collision with poverty, drug addiction and sex workers. You also see that from the character's window in the film. I found this background for the film very interesting. Also, I'm from Berlin and I really don't want to shoot films in Berlin!

The film deals with white liberal attitudes.
I decided to place Monika in the art and cultural scene firstly because this is where I'm from and this is what I know, and it's a way to enter the story, to enter a different field, which is the Congolese diaspora. But I also feel that the intellectual discourses led in the art and culture field are elevated above accusations of injustice or racism. So I wanted to go into that world and find and show the subtle racism. Also, I wanted to explore who is allowed to ask questions because, in a way, the racism in the art world is not so evident as in the suburbs when unemployed people decide to be nazis. It's understated racism in this scene. 

How did you try to get into Joseph's perspective?
We researched a lot. We tried to create a character that we could understand, but we decided to write someone you cannot decipher. He could be a prince, because he knows rich people from Angola and also because of the language that he uses. He is somehow well-educated as well. But also, I do think that if you don't have papers in Germany, sometimes there is no choice but to find other ways to get money, and I would do the same. There are many laws I wanted to confront in the film. 

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