Film Comment: The Wild Dogs

There are several films carrying the title of The Wild Dogs. This is the 2002 film directed by Thom Fitzgerald in Bucharest (Bucuresti), Romania. The film won 4 awards in 2002 from the Atlantic Film Festival and 4 nominations from the Genie Awards and the Taos Talking Picture Festival. It is not of Oscar quality, but it definitely will make you think, and squirm.

Several stories are twined together into a slice of several days in the life of the rich elite and the poor beggars of Bucharest. It takes place during the period of the "cull" of the wild dogs which basically overran the city after the fall of the Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The characters include, a highly reluctant city-employed dogcatcher; a Canadian pornographer in town to photograph fresh, very young meat; a cynical and corrupt diplomat and his disillusioned lonely wife; bands of abandoned children; hideously deformed "freaks of nature;" gypsies; beggars; and, of course, the dogs.

Unless you are a veteran viewer of hard-edged films I really can't recommend that you watch this. Some of it will make you angry, some of it will make you cry. Some of the language will offend you. You will not believe that Dorutu (a human torso) and "Sour Grapes" (whose knees bend backward as he walks around on all fours like a large crab) are real people, but they are. There were no CGI special effects involved in filming these characters.

The film causes extreme disagreements among its viewers. Some hate it, some say it is an accurate reflection of Bucharest. One Romanian emigrant said online, "Every country they got their poors." Claudita_993, a Romanian who resettled in Canada, said of the dogs, "I felt sorry for them and I despised them at the same time."

The point of the film, from a Christian perspective, is that the people in the film were the actual wild dogs, aimless and hopeless, scrounging each day just to survive, living utterly without purpose. There are no innocent people in the film, not even the children. The only innocents are the dogs. It is a powerful presentation of the sheer lostness of the world living without Jesus Christ.

A Christian Composition on the Theremin

“Hosanna” on the Theremin, arranged from the Romanian Othodox liturgy by Benedict Popescu. 

The Theremin was invented by the Russian physicist Lev Sergeyevich Termen (aka: Leon Theremin, b. 1896, Russia – d. 1993).  The instrument is unusual in that it is not touched by the person creating the music.   An electrical field is created between two antennas and the field is distorted by the moving hands of the performer.  One hand controls the amplitude and the other controls the frequency of the created signal.  The signal is amplified and sent to a speaker to produce sound.

The link below is to a secular composition which highlights the abilities of the Theremin.  The other instrument is a Vulcan Harp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRfbWrI03gc

The Vulcan Lute (aka: Vulcan Harp) was created for the original television series, Star Trek.

http://ontd-startrek.livejournal.com/1378268.html?thread=172342492

This link also shows the capabilities of the Theremin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAQChI7Yq-I

What They Think of Us: Andrei Codrescu

"The evaporation of 4 million people who believe in this crap would leave the world an instantly better place." Andrei Codrescu, 19 December 1995 on National Public Radio (USA)

Codrescu (born in Romania in 1946 as Andrei Perlmutter) is a poet, novelist, essayist, university professor, and has been an NPR commentator on All Things Considered since 1983.  NPR, but not Codrescu, has officially apologized for the remark.

A Romanian Christian Song

Film Comment: The Wild Dogs

There are several films carrying this title. This is the 2002 film directed by Thom Fitzgerald in Bucharest (Bucuresti), Romania.
The film won 4 awards in 2002 from the Atlantic Film Festival and 4 nominations from the Genie Awards and the Taos Talking Picture Festival. It is not Oscar quality, but it definitely will make you think, and squirm.

Several stories are twined together into a slice of several days in the life of the rich elite and the poor beggars of Bucharest. It takes place during the period of the "cull" of the wild dogs which basically overran the city after the fall of the Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The characters include, a highly reluctant city-employed dogcatcher; a Canadian pornographer in town to photograph fresh, very young meat; a cynical and corrupt diplomat and his disillusioned lonely wife; bands of abandoned children; hideously deformed "freaks of nature;" gypsies; beggars; and, of course, the dogs.

Unless you are a veteran viewer of hard-edged films I really can't recommend that you watch this. Some of it will make you angry, some of it will make you cry. Some of the language will offend you. You will not believe that Dorutu (a human torso) and "Sour Grapes" (whose knees bend backward as he walks around on all fours like a large crab) are real people, but they are. There were no CGI special effects involved in filming these characters.

The film causes extreme disagreements among its viewers. Some hate it, some say it is an accurate reflection of Bucharest. One Romanian emigrant said online, "Every country they got their poors." Claudita_993, a Romanian who resettled in Canada, said of the dogs, "I felt sorry for them and I despised them at the same time."

The point of the film, from a Christian perspective, is that the people in the film were the actual wild dogs, aimless and hopeless, scrounging each day just to survive, living utterly without purpose. There are no innocent people, not even the children. The only innocents are the dogs. It is a powerful presentation of the sheer lostness of the world living without Jesus Christ.