29/04/2024 - The Latvian brothers’ experimental animated folktale depicts the most famous werewolf trial in Northern Europe

As is customary, seven prestigious festivals have each nominated one genre work in progress to be pitched at the Marché du Film’s genre-film showcase called Fantastic 7 (see the news). Dog of God, which participated in the European Genre Forum training programme, was nominated by the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Following Baltic Tribes (2018), a story about the last pagans of Europe, and Troubled Minds [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lauris Abele, Raitis Abele …
film profile] (2021), three brothers (directors Lauris and Raitis Ābele and DoP Mārcis Ābele) resume their exploration of pagan narratives. Dog of God retraces the story of Thiess, a man in his eighties who proclaims himself a werewolf during a trial where a young woman, Neze, is accused of witchcraft and of stealing a priest’s relic.

Thiess isn’t your ordinary wolf. He considers himself a “Dog of God” serving humanity instead of demonic forces. The legend unfolds in 17th-century Livonia, in the village of Zaube (present-day Latvia), an area once renowned for its abundance of particularly savage werewolves. Unlike the common shapeshifting werewolf, the Livonian ones, feared by German missionaries, were said to be mad shamans, and guardians of fertility and harvests. “It's about time for Cannes to learn about our unique type of werewolves,” remarks Raitis Ābele.

The film interweaves historical accuracy with imagination (thanks to scriptwriting quartet Ivo Briedis, Lauris Ābele, Raitis Ābele and Harijs Grundmanis) and animation with live action. Raitis Ābele reveals to Cineuropa that the entire film was shot in live action against a blue screen, with animation created using the rotoscoping technique.

The historical reports of the werewolf case tribunal served as an impulse for imagining life in the village. “Ivo Briedis' screenplay was the departure point. We brainstormed how to make it even stranger. This was the approach for each aspect of the story. After all, our target audience is genre film lovers, who have seen it all. A decapitation or two doesn't surprise them, so we were encouraged to push the boundaries,” Raitis Ābele discloses. The cinematography is handled by Mārcis Ābele, with Harijs Grundmanis serving as the animation artist and Aigars Gercāns as the lead animator.

Former prime minister and ex-president of the Bank of Latvia Einārs Repše plays Thiess. Regnārs Vaivars breathes life into the priest, and Kristians Kareļins has been cast as the baron. Raitis Ābele notes that the casting process was highly creative; each actor was painted and animated. While the drawings were true to reality, some faces tend to lose particular features, while others stand out.

The search for their werewolf was notably challenging, with the ex-politician-turned-actor ultimately securing the role. Raitis Ābele recalls: “After my brother Lauris proposed the part of Thiess to Repše, a long pause ensued before Repše laconically responded, ‘Okay.’ During the casting, when asked to howl like a wolf, he accepted the rules of the game. We understood that we had a match.”

Dog of God is being co-produced by Kristele Pudāne and Raitis Ābele himself for Latvia’s Tritone Studio, and by Giovanni Labadessa for the USA’s Lumiere Lab. The film is undergoing the finishing touches, with a release slated for the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025.