‘Place to Be’ Helmer Kornél Mundruczó on Directing Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and a Pigeon in an Unlikely Love Story

Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó has spoken about making "Place to Be," a Venice Film Festival romantic comedy pairing Ellen Burstyn with Taika Waititi, describing his wish to give Burstyn a lighter role after a career dominated by dark dramas and horror. He revealed that he sought out Waititi specifically for a "strong personality" quality reminiscent of Robin Williams, that the pairing produced immediate chemistry once the two actors met, and that Murray Bartlett and Pamela Anderson were cast as Burstyn's on-screen children partly for their striking physical resemblance to her.

The film casts Burstyn as Brooke, a widow whose family wants her placed in a retirement home, who instead sets off on a cross-country journey after a stray pigeon flies into her home, accompanied by Waititi's divorced character Nelson. Mundruczó insisted on using real birds rather than CGI, with seventeen pigeons playing the central character Intruder and roughly 1,000 birds used across the Sydney- and New York-shot production, none of which were lost during filming. The premiere, held on Wednesday, also coincided with Burstyn receiving a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the festival.