The winner of 2023 LUX Audience Award is announced on 27 June in a ceremony at the European Parliament’s hemicycle in Brussels. Before the ceremony, João Pedro Rodrigues, director of “Will-o'-the-Wisp” one of the 5 nominated films answers to an interview.

Brussels

statement

LUX European Audience Film Award 2023 (T)

LUX Audience Award 2023 - Statements by finalists: João Pedro Rodrigues, director of “Will-o'-the-Wisp”

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/71115312/1687790780175_I243047Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

<p>SOUNDBITE (English) - Jo&atilde;o Pedro Rodrigues, director of &ldquo;Will-o'-the-Wisp&rdquo;: I think my film won't be wouldn't be shown, for instance, in Hungary because of questions of like queer rights and politics in Hungary. For me, that's very joyful, and I think it will reach much more people than it would reach if it if it was nominated.</p>

SOUNDBITE (English) - Jo&atilde;o Pedro Rodrigues, director of &ldquo;Will-o'-the-Wisp&rdquo;: Well, I think the spinal cord of my film is a love story. It's a love story between a prince and a fireman. And I think it's what pulls forward the film and what makes something that is sort of unbelievable because it's a fantasy. It's a film of princes, which is not well, it's not at all a fantasy because there's still some light. Even here. There is a royal family, but not anymore in Portugal. So it's part of the past. But for me, that's love. It was important that he could be saw, seen by the audience as something truthful and meaningful.

SOUNDBITE (English) - Jo&atilde;o Pedro Rodrigues, director of &ldquo;Will-o'-the-Wisp&rdquo;: I think the film is the main question of the film is identity. It's the way you want to show yourself to others and what you really are. And I think the prince, which is a make believe prince because there is no more royalty in Portugal, discovers another self somehow, while when he meets his lover, which is a fireman. So I think this it's not really a clash, but there's the meeting. There's a bridge between social differences. And I think the film also talks about that and not only social differences, but also about race.

SOUNDBITE (English) - Jo&atilde;o Pedro Rodrigues, director of &ldquo;Will-o'-the-Wisp&rdquo;: Love can heal deep injuries like our colonial past, as if love could heal deep injuries that are still bleeding in our society nowadays.