DOGS

Director Bogdan Mirica, nominated for EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2016 – Prix FIPRESCI, talks about collaborating with other directors, the random aspects of violence, and shooting his debut film, DOGS.

Bogdan Mirica

What made you move from screenwriting to directing? Was that your goal from the beginning on? Or a natural development? Actually, it was a very blunt transition. I had been working as a screenwriter for quite a while and I had progressively become more and more frustrated by my collaboration with different directors. I had the feeling they were over-simplifying the scripts or on the contrary, that scenes which were meant to be straightforward would become muddy because of a pretentious way of cutting them, or by using weird-for-the-sake-of-weird angles, etc. Collaboration with other directors was a constant conflict for me – and I’m sure it would have escalated even more (because I’m very stubborn with my material) if I hadn’t stopped. Which I did eventually in 2011 when I wrote and directed a short film called BORA BORA.

What is your film about and what makes it unique?

In an intimate way, my movie is about some of my re-collections as a child when I spent a lot of holidays in the countryside where I witnessed many episodes of sheer violence between the locals. What struck me at the time (and still does) was the random aspect of this violence – many times there was no tangible cause for it, as if it stemmed from the people themselves. As if it was a way of communicating. I still remember my fear and fascination towards them. This feeling stayed with me for a long time and most likely making DOGS was my way of dealing with that. In a broader sense, my film is about cowardice and our inability to accept it as our own. To a certain extent it also reflects my nostalgia for a world that’s slowly vanishing. And to answer your question, what makes my film unique (although I don’t really believe in uniqueness when it comes to art – I’m more of an “everything influences everything” kind of guy), it is this particular set of memories, emotions and personal interpretations that led to it.  

What was the most challenging aspect while shooting the film?

The entire shoot was pretty difficult. We shot a lot in nature – and obviously you depend on the weather and light. We shot a lot of nights, and summer nights are short so you have to move fast. We had stunts, kids, old people, loads of animals – but to be honest, the most challenging to me is always that moment when you’re trying to create truth between two characters. If you do that properly, you strike gold.

After this first feature film experience: What do you most love / most hate about filmmaking?

There’s nothing I hate about filmmaking. There’s a part of it where I’m less skilful – and that’s the financial/ organisational part of it. But I had the good fortune of having competent producers behind me – and they dealt with that.

Who do you consider your cinematographic influences?

There are too many to list. I do have favourite directors, cinematographers or writers, of course. But I also feel I’ve been influenced by a certain way of making movies, like they used to make thrillers in the 70s for instance. I like Asian movies, especially South-Korean ones. Their narrative is so out of the box. I’m also influenced a lot by literature and music. I cannot start writing a new project unless I have the proper playlist to listen to during the writing process. With DOGS it happened that I listened to the same music for 3-4 years.

How important is the EFA Discovery Award for you as a young filmmaker and what do you expect from the nomination?

Well, it’s a great honour and it makes me very happy because this way DOGS – which is a small independent debut feature that comes from Eastern Europe – has a chance to gain visibility. And this is essential for a movie like mine.

You didn’t go to film school. How did you learn the craft and what do you consider the advantages/disadvantages of your education to a film school?

I have an MA in Screenwriting and maybe that helped me to a certain extent. Probably, not going to film school created some sort of inferiority complex at the beginning – which is obviously silly. I was a bit confused about the technical aspects of filmmaking – especially since I had worked in advertising a lot before where I’d meet a lot of directors of commercials – and some of them were very keen on using technical slang just to throw you off track. And that’s silly again – because knowing technical features is an asset – but that’s not enough if you want to tell a story. And if you feel you’re not covered 100% you can always ask the DOP, the editor, the sound designer, etc. Your main task as a director is to know exactly what story you want to tell and how.

How do you see your future as a filmmaker? What’s next?

I want to take it one step at a time. Right now, I’m directing a TV series that I wrote for HBO Europe, called SHADOWS (Umbre). It’s already the 2nd season – the first one being very successful – so I’m very excited about it. We’ll see what happens afterwards.