Marina Palii Selected at the Berlinale Talents 2021

This year, actor Marina Palii was one of the 200 artists selected to the Berlinale Talents 2021 program

Corina Sabău, 14.08.2021, 13:57

This year, actor Marina Palii was one of the 200 artists selected to the Berlinale Talents 2021 program, as part of the Berlin Film Festival, between March 1 and 5, 2021. Participants applied from 65 countries across the world, and were shortlisted from among 3,000 candidates. Romania was also represented at this edition by producer Anda Ionescu and director of photography Boroka Biro.

We talked with Marina Palii about the roles that marked her career and her participation in the Berlinale Talents.

“For me, the Berlinale Talents was a very important event for me, because it is one of the most important events in the world. Which is why being selected for it is a sign of great appreciation. After taking part in the summer in the Sarajevo Talents event, I decided to apply for this workshop. Due to the global situation, they found this compromise, and all the workshops were shifted to Zoom. In this way I shared the workshops with filmmakers from all over the world, from Chile, Peru, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, the entire world map moved to Zoom, and that was very interesting, in spite of the lack of contact. It was a novelty to be able to talk to colleagues from all corners of the world from your room. I took part in some workshops that were about three hours a day, which familiarized us with the Alexander Technique. The workshops were held by two trainers, Kristof Konrad and Jean-Louis Rodrigue, and they have been practicing this technique for a long time. The two held their workshops mostly in the US, and there are many actors already working on their characters using the Alexander Technique. Overall, it is about a series of movement and breathing exercises. I worked on scenes from famous films with colleagues from other countries on Zoom, which was completely new, but we adapted, and pushed things in a very good direction.”

Among the arguments given by the jury in selecting Marina Palii for the 2021 Berlinale Talents were “The ease of interpretation in a role both French and Romanian, and the ability to build strong character”. The event was part of the 71st edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. Marina Palii graduated from the I.L. Caragiale National University of Theater and Cinema Arts. Her specialization was Polish and French, and she is an actor with the Ioan Slavici Classical Theater of Arad. She has been in four movies: 6.9 on the Richter Scale, by Nae Caranfil, 2016, Crime and Punishment, Jon Gostin, 2017, La Foret dargent, produced by ARTE France, by Jon Gostin, 2017, and Malmkrog, by Cristi Puiu, 2020. For the latter, Puiu got the Best Director Award in the Encounters Section of the Berlin International Film Festival. Marina Palii told us about the role that made her famous, Olga, in Cristi Puius Marlmkrog:

“After taking part in the film festival in Berlin last year, things took a really good turn. In both Sarajevo and Berlin I applied with a video, a collage from the movies Malmkrog and La Foret dargent, and I think that counted towards the selection. Getting back to Malmkrog, it was a great experience, it helped me a lot. Basically it was my debut in an auteur movie. Malmkrog and Olga were a tour de force, which helped me shed any notion of what I thought was film acting and character building, because in this film I didnt apply anything I learned in school. It is true, in school there is no module for film acting, there are only some workshops, or odd courses with guest filmmakers. Over here in school they dont do solid training in film acting, and each one of us learns by imitating colleagues. This made an even greater challenge playing Olga. Working with Cristi Puiu brought me close to some limits I had to overcome. I am referring to physical resilience, first of all, but it also didnt help that my part was entirely in French. In addition, it is a fairly tough text, but there was some improvisation, which I enjoyed very much. The fact that the director granted me the freedom to improvise, and he put his trust in me, that was a great joy, I felt it as a moment of maximum freedom. It is extraordinary if one proposal you make out of ten is accepted. In summary, Olga was a character that I worked very hard for.”

Marina Palii is also part of the cast of the show School and Family, a theater project built on texts by Caragiale, by director Cristian Ban, staged by the Ioan Slavici Classical Theater of Arad.