Q&A with Vlad Ivanov. U.S. Premiere!

Following his scene-stealing supporting roles in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Police, Adjective, the great Vlad Ivanov takes center stage in director Constantin Popescu’s wryly comic portrait of a frazzled everyman—a middle-aged, upwardly mobile husband and father with a successful business, a new home under construction, and a seemingly picture-perfect marriage (his second). Indeed, when we first meet Ivanov’s Emilian, he seems to have it all, but as he begins to prepare for a summer holiday at the Bulgarian seaside, subtle fissures form in Emillan’s impermeable façade. The more Emilian tries to keep his carefully ordered universe in a state of calm, the more it descends into chaos—from a blocked parking space to the tumult of a crowded supermarket to the moody indifference of his teenage son (from his first marriage). Propelled by Ivanov’s splendid performance and a deft script from ace screenwriters Alexandru Baciu and Razvan Radulescu (The Paper Will Be Blue), Principles of Life is a deceptively simple, quietly profound look at the sometimes Sisyphean struggles of the everyday.