AN INTERVIEW WITH OMID ROMAL, DIRECTOR & WRITER OF “GADENS MELODI”

Hi Omid Romal, thank you for having us. Would you like to present yourself to your viewers? What drew you to film?

Dear Cannes World Film festival, thank you for having this interview. My name is Omid Romal, I recently finished my debut film. I always loved watching movies and figuring out the idea behind the story, the technical aspect of the work and why the director imagined the movies as they did. At a very young age, I started directing my friends’ and my siblings’ videos, for fun. Luckily I got the opportunity to make my dream comes true and direct a full feature film.

There’s a specific tone and pace to how the dialogues unroll, which blurs the line between documentary and fiction, and blows away the entire concept of “docufiction.” Something a bit Godardian. How did you work with your Actors?

GADENS MELODI is somewhat a realist movie. The story is based on how the youth in Copenhagen live their life and how being surrounded by criminal friends can change your whole life in a split second.

I gave my actors freedom to deliver the dialogues like they were having a conversation in real life, as long as it matched the script. The rawness and the authenticity of the characters were really important for the movie.

How deep did you look into the global history of gangsterism to write your script?

My team and I did lots of research on what ‘’gang’’ life is like exactly today. Throughout my life, I had friends who ended up in gang and crime life. Even I had some incidents with the police when I was younger. That made it easier for me to be around the ‘’gang’’ people, experience their every day life, and work on my script around it.

Do you think that profound changes in societies, like for example a better distribution of global wealth, would eventually eliminate the need for groups to “gang up”?

I believe that if the government started to come up with solutions around ‘’gang’’ life instead of coming up with new rules all the time, that would be a good start. After being surrounded by ‘’gang’’ people for my research and script work, I realized that 90% of the people in gangs are looking for a way out. They want a better life for themselves.

Unfortunately, in Denmark, if you have been arrested for even a small thing and have been convicted, getting a normal job is almost impossible. Even if the biggest ‘’Gangster’’ wants to get a normal job and start a better life, society will not allow it. The only option left is to get back to gang life and be accepted somewhere.

How did you proceed to put together the soundtrack?

I always had an idea about creating a soundtrack for the film, so I tried to gather some of the best rappers in Denmark, who themselves have known gang life, and ask them to tell their stories through music. I was lucky to get few rappers to agree and work on songs that could be used as soundtrack for the film.

How is Danish cinema doing? What is the industry like in your country, in terms of financing, subsidies, distribution and festivals?

The Danish Film industry is growing. Luckily, The Danish Film Institute helps filmmakers financially to make their movies —although we didn’t get any financial support from them for our film; but hopefully in the future The Danish Film Institute will decide to help my upcoming projects.

Favorite Directors, and favorite films?

Favorite Director for me would definitely be Christopher Nolan. What he did with the movie ‘’Inception’’ was a one-of-a-kind experience for me and his recent movie ‘’Tenet’’ was another mind-blowing, creative and well thought movie.

ITV 2023