Marta Bergman is a Bucharest-born director known for her documentary films, in which she has explored Romania and more specifically, the Roma communities. Her documentaries have been shown at prestigious festivals such as Visions du réel and the Leipzig Film Festival. “Alone At My Wedding” is her narrative feature debut.

“Alone At My Wedding” (“Seule à mon mariage”) will premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival on May 10.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

MB: “Alone At My wedding” is mainly the story of Pamela, a young Roma girl who will find the way to emancipate herself from her traditional Roma community and from the role a woman is expected to have.
In the beginning, Pamela strongly believes that she needs a man — a well-off foreigner — to have a decent life, but along her journey, she finds out that she’s strong enough to be free and independent.

Pamela is a romanesque heroine — streetwise, impulsive, and funny. People are attracted to her because she’s full of life and energy. That’s why Bruno likes her so much. Their romance makes them both change in a positive way, moving them towards freedom and real emotions. Pamela’s story is also a feminine quest for true love, sex, and motherhood. How can we reconcile all these inner contradictions? In this sense, Pamela is a modern heroine opening the narrative to universal concerns.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

MB: “Alone At My Wedding” is the continuity of my work as a documentary filmmaker. I made several documentaries in Romania, especially in Clejani, a village with an important Roma community. Pamela’s story and her character are rooted in this reality that I know quite well.

I am touched by the young Gypsy women with their wit, beauty, and energy. Unfortunately, most of this potential is often wasted: despite their dreams and aspirations, they are stuck in their community due to a lack of education, their traditional place in the community, and so many other factors.

At the end of “Clejani Stories,” my latest documentary filmed in Clejani, a young Gypsy girl closes her suitcase under the almost indifferent gaze of her parents and sets off for Germany to “make men buy her drinks in bars.” This scene remained in my mind. Out of this obsession, Pamela appeared to me as a fully-formed character. I wanted her story to have a more positive outcome. Therefore, I created her as a strong, independent, romanesque heroine.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

MB: I hope the audience will share the feeling of freedom that Pamela reaches at the end of the film, which is the start of something new for her. Who knows what her life will be after that? The future remains open.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

MB: One of the most challenging and exciting parts was casting, and specifically choosing actors from three different countries and cultures: Romania, Romanian and Roma actors speaking both languages; from Belgium, French and Flemish native speakers; and actors from France. We brought together professional actors — with very different practices and backgrounds — and amateurs!

I had the chance to find real partners in the production team who understood the meaning and value of this unconventional choice. The main purpose of this risky choice was to create complex characters full of ambiguity, and fragile as composed in the script — far from the usual stereotypes.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

MB: I was lucky enough to have the film made with people who really believed in it. First of all, my producers (Frakas Productions, Jean-Yves Roubin, and Cassandre Warnauts) and the partners that they gathered in Belgium (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Wallimage, RTBF, Proximus, Tax Shelter, Screen.brussels, the Province de Liège).

We shot the film with a limited budget because we didn’t get other funding despite incredibly invested co-producers in France and Romania (Ada Solomon, Sophie Leclercq, Caroline Bonmarchand). The film was made with a tremendous amount of energy, and without that energy the film would have been impossible to make. [These co-producers] made it possible to build a team around three countries — my DOP is French, my script girl is Romanian, etc.

After that, Julie Gayet and Nadia Turincev helped us in post-production. Our Belgian, French, and Romanian crew [carried themovie].

W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at Cannes?

MB: I am thrilled. It is a great opportunity to be there. I believe that ACID is the perfect place to launch the movie on the international scene. The ACID selection committee is composed by filmmakers, which means they chose the movie purely for its cinematographic qualities. Cannes offers a marvelous visibility for the film.

W&H: What’s the worst advice you’ve received?

MB: “You should remove ghosts from the script — it doesn’t fit in your style.” I didn’t take the advice!

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

MB: Don’t be afraid to follow your instincts and take risks.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

MB: Two directors I appreciate most of all are Andrea Arnold and Kelly Reichardt. They have their own specific, unconventional style and are still very popular. They know how to create strong female characters and explore deep feelings inside contemporary issues. In every one of her movies, Reichardt develops a poetic point of view — the images are so accurate that they haunt you for a long time.

W&H: Hollywood and the global film industry are in the midst of undergoing a major transformation. Many women — and some men — in the industry are speaking publicly about their experiences being assaulted and harassed. What are your thoughts on the #TimesUp movement and the push for equality in the film business?

MB: I am full of gratitude to women who brought their hard experiences to light and I believe these [hashtags and movements] are very useful to allow us to think, discuss, and claim equal treatment.

Women and men, we shouldn’t [allow] this lamentable state of things to go on! We should claim parity in the film business and in other fields. Since these movements, I started to be more aware of the lack of parity around me, even in familiar places — the unequal number of female teachers in cinema and art schools, the lack of women-directors as positive examples in cinema classes, etc.