Bogdan Mirică

Bogdan Mirică on Dogs/Câini: 
The script – It’s inspired from a world that I know very well – the world in which I grew up in the countryside with my grandparents. However, it wasn’t that world in itself that interested me, but my emotions towards it, emotions which I can still feel. What struck me was the arbitrary and unpredictable nature of the violence happening there – I saw people getting into deadly fights out of uncertain reasons – and I find this to be frightening. How can you defend yourself against something you can’t anticipate – not even in theory? In a “normal” society violence can usually be accounted for by taking into consideration one or several causes. But not there – there violence seemed to spring out of nothing. Out of the darkness of human nature, I suppose.
I think I started writing the script about five years ago – I stopped a few times along the way because I had to “get out” of it, then I went back to it, I presented it during several workshops. I didn’t stall – I firmly believe that every story needs a gestation period – you can rush it, but it’ll show. And even if it won’t show, still you, the writer, will now that the story wasn’t yet ready.
The production – We scouted locations a long time. In the script I was very specific about how I wanted the places to look like – some of them played a part in the dramaturgy-, meaning that the space determines something of the action. So we had to do a lot of scouting and, sometimes, we even had to remodel a little bit the scenery – either physically, on location, or during post-production, when we erased some elements I didn’t want in the shots. I wanted the landscape to be a character on its own – poetical and hostile. The shooting lasted about 28 days. It was pretty difficult – this usually happens when you’re shooting a lot in a natural environment, when you depend a lot on the weather, when you’re filming in the summer at night – and nights can be very short when you’re working with kids, animals or when you’re usingstunts. We had them all.
The actors – We went through casting for a good number of months. I was looking for a sort of rough physicality which would possess something ominous, without necessarily being aggressive. At the same time, I liked this idea that all the characters should have a tormented beauty to them, the beauty you see in people who are struggling – and I think I achieved this (admittedly, at times with the help of some make-up). And last but not least – the film isn’t conceived in a realist register – I sometimes enjoyed spending more time with the characters than it would have been natural – and I think this is another element which boosts the beauty I mentioned earlier.
Cinema ­– I like cinema because it catches me by surprise and I would like to make films that can, too, catch others by surprise. I admire Melville, Cassavetes, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Jacques Audiard.