Scriptwriter’s Note

The story had as a starting point a short newspaper article I read in 2002. The workers from Aro suggested they could sell their sperm to pay off the debts of the factory, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. In real life, nothing more came out of this piece of news, which resulted only in laughter and irony.

Using this situation, I tried to imagine how things would have developed if their suggestion had been taken seriously. It was an angle that talked about our naiveté and idealism after 1989. We lived in a world whose rules we completely ignored and where everything seemed possible. I chose simple characters, who are suddenly faced with survival problems and who find unexpected solutions without losing heart and without over-dramatizing.


Ionuț Teianu

Of snails and men is a film about the injustice brought about by freedom. It’s an utopic story in a cynical and pragmatic world. And, at the same time, it’s the story of two colliding worlds: Romania and France. Two worlds that ignore each other and whose opinions about each other comprise solely clichés. Two worlds represented by small town characters, whose cultural references are Julio Iglesias and Dan Spătaru, whose lyrics sum up their own philosophies on life and love. These are characters that I made up, with whom I lived for months and who are now very dear to me. I hope the viewers will grow fond of them as well.

This bittersweet comedy is an attempt to express the indignation I felt against the hypocrisy and cynicism which have followed the changes in our life after the fall of communism.

Ionuț Teianu