“Place to Be”, interview with director Kornel Mundruczo

Presented in the Open section, out of competition, at the Venice Film Festival 2026, Place to Be is a light-hearted road movie about the unexpected friendship between an elderly woman and a middle-aged man travelling from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon, Intruder, to its owner. Brooke Graham, a gentle woman who has devoted her life to her children since her husband’s death, sees her quiet existence turned upside down by an unwelcome visitor — a cheeky carrier pigeon that refuses to leave her home. Unable to abandon the bird, she embarks on a quixotic journey and finds an unlikely travelling companion in Nelson Green, a businessman struggling to find his way forward after a series of setbacks. Director Kornél Mundruczó talks about writing the film for Ellen Burstyn, pairing her with Taika Waititi, and the tender, unhurried story he wanted to tell.

A Love Story Written for Ellen Burstyn

The project was born, says Mundruczó, out of the connection he felt with Ellen Burstyn while making Pieces of a Woman. “We did like two, three days together, and immediately I felt some tremendous connection, and I really wanted to write a movie for her.”

What drew him to write for her, he explains, was the contrast with the roles she is best known for: “Her body of work is kind of darker genres — her iconic role in The Exorcist or Requiem for a Dream, which was really touching me. And my work is also pretty cruel many times, right? So what if we team up and do a very tender love story?”

That idea became the foundation of the film: “You can be in love even if it’s completely platonic at that age, and age matters, or love can be above age. That was the first idea.”

A Punk Couple, and Kata Weber’s Dialogues

The second idea, says Mundruczó, was to build as unlikely a pairing as possible opposite Burstyn: “The second idea was just to try to create a punk couple, as punk as possible. And then I found Taika Waititi for the opposite role, and you cannot find two more different people: a dramatic actress and a comedian.”

That contrast, he adds, is carried by the film’s writing: “Kata Weber’s script and dialogues are incredible — it’s like back and forth constantly between these two people.”

Keeping It Small, and Letting the Pigeon Do the Work

Mundruczó says he wanted Place to Be to stay deliberately modest in scale, resisting the pull of anything provocative: “I wanted to do something very small, hopefully very normal, very little — nothing so to say edgy or provoking. I find that above a certain age, this kind of fashion doesn’t matter, so I wanted to create a certain connection and tenderness between two people in the most natural and simple way, and give them the time.”

At the centre of that connection, he explains, is the pigeon that starts the story: “At the beginning there is a pigeon who is just flying to an apartment, and Brooke feels that she’s helping that little bird. But through the journey you learn that’s not true: the pigeon helps her find the meaning of her life.”

And even though the story closes on a realistic note, Mundruczó hopes something has shifted: “I think we finish the movie in a realistic tone, meaning she’s just heading back to her previous life. But she’s not the same person, I hope.”

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