Reviewer Peter Debruge from “Variety” wrote down: “being situated at the crossroads between
Blood Simple by Coen brothers and
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, which created a stir at Cannes, Mirică's debut belongs to a tradition of cynical thrillers, almost nihilistic, depicting a situation where a relatively small reason may leave behind a dozen of dead bodies in pools of blood.” The reviewer compared the opening sequence of the film with the famous one in
Blue Velvet by David Lynch. “Director-screenwriter Bogdan Mirică comes with a very confident debut, juggling a lot of sinister clues and smouldering complicities,” “Screen Daily” wrote, giving praise to the actors, to cinematography and sound track.
After Cannes, the Romanian thriller will be nationally premiered in Cluj-Napoca, with the crew attending, at the Transilvania International Film Festival, where it competes for the Transilvania Trophy. The leading roles are played by actors: Dragoș Bucur, Vlad Ivanov and Gheorghe Visu. In supporting roles: Teodor Corban, Raluca Aprodu, Costel Cașcaval and Constantin Cojocaru
. Dogs will be launched in the Romanian film theatres in September, distributed by
Transilvania Film.
The action is placed close to the Romanian border with Ukraine. Roman, a city boy, arrives in an isolated village from Dobrogea, where he intends to sell the land he inherited from his grandfather, who died a couple of months ago. While he deals with the sale, he gradually becomes witness to bizarre events. A general threatening feeling is floating in the air. The shooting was made in the summer of 2015, on location in Brăila, Galați, Teleorman and Giurgiu. Bogdan Mirică is both director and screenwriter; Andrei Butică was director of photography, and Augustina Stanciu signed the scenography. The
Dogs project was selected within numerous development workshops, such as Angers Workshops, Torino Film Lab or Les Arcs (France), and won the ARTE Award at CineLink (Sarajevo).
The crew's attendance at Cannes was sponsored by the National Filmmaking Centre, the Romanian Cultural Institute and by the Romanian Filmmakers Union.
Dogs was produced by 42 Km Film (Marcela Ursu) and EZ Films (Elie Meirovitz), and co-produced by Argo Film (Stephan Komandarev). The France-Romania-Bulgaria-Qatar co-production was made with the support of the National Filmmaking Centre (CNC), of theCentre national du cinéma et de l’image animée of France, of CNC Bulgaria, Canal +, Eurimages and of the GAN Fundation, with the participation of HBO România. The film will be distributed in Romanian film theatres by Transilvania Film.
