Winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2014 Cannes Festival, acclaimed Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczó’s newest film is a story of the indignities visited upon animals by their supposed human superiors. White God is also a stark, stunning metaphor for the political and cultural tensions sweeping contemporary Europe. When young Lili is forced to give up her beloved dog, Hagen, because its mixed-breed heritage is deemed “unfit” by the State, she and the dog begin a dangerous journey back towards each other. At the same time, all the unwanted, unloved, and so-called “unfit” dogs rise up under a new leader, Hagen, the one-time house pet who has learned all too well in his journey through the streets and animal control centers that man is not always dog’s best friend. I had the chance to talk to director Kornel Mundruczó about this unusual and riveting film.
Danny Miller: I have to admit that I was scared to see this film at first because I was afraid of scenes involving the abuse of animals, even though I knew those wouldn’t be real. So I was surprised at how beautiful and haunting the movie is, even though there are many intense scenes.
Kornel Mundruczó: The most important thing for me was to convey what was happening emotionally and to use it as a form of social criticism. I am never interested in using elements of horror or scaring viewers just for the sake of it. I am also a person who can’t stand to see any kind of brutality in a movie without context.
The relationship between the dogs and humans is such a brilliant way to bring up these issues of domination and superiority. Have you noticed a very different reaction to the film in different countries.
That’s a really interesting question because on the one hand, this is my most Hungarian movie, I was really trying to reflect my reality of my country — my anger and criticism of my society — and yet this movie has become the most international film that I’ve ever made. It’s true, though, that people respond to it differently in different countries. I noticed that in places like Turkey and Mexico, they’re mostly following the dogs but in France and Germany they tend to talk about the need for solidarity among people. The perspective that you’re coming from definitely influences how you see this film — I’m very curious to see how it will be received by American audiences.
I’ve talked to directors who complained about having one dog in their film, but you had hundreds. And what you got them to do is nothing short of miraculous. How the hell did you pull that off?
It was very important to us to use this new method for training dogs which is completely based on positive reinforcement — always talking positively to the dogs. Of course no dog was harmed in any way, quite the opposite. For some scenes, we ended up being very challenged in the editing room because those dogs were so happy! Still, working with 250 dogs was a big risk. But I think artists have to take risks in order to find answers to real problems.
I don’t think anything like this has ever been attempted before. How did you know it would work?
I didn’t! But we had great trainers, such as Teresa Miller, and during the training period and rehearsals, I began to get very excited. When I first saw just 50 dogs running together, I thought, wow, what a powerful image! And so when I realized that our trainers could achieve that with five times as many dogs, I was thrilled. These are unknown images to moviegoers. I wanted to shoot the movie in almost a naïve way, from the perspective of the dogs. The camera was often positioned very low to the ground, at their level, because it was they who had the power and the truth.
And none of the dogs were computer generated?
No. Before the movie I insisted on only two things: no CGI and I wanted to use real dogs from pounds. We ended up with some great partnerships there. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of animal movies, probably because I’ve seen so many of the Soviet ones that were made during the Communist period. In those films, the animals just seemed dead inside, with no emotions except fear. I wanted to tell a story with a dog hero who was a real hero!
Honestly, the acting by some of the the dogs was better than a lot of the human acting I’ve seen lately in big blockbusters! I was also very impressed by young Zsófia Psotta who played Lili. How did you find her?
We did a search in many local high schools. Zsófia was quite a rebel and very unique. I immediately felt she was right for that part although she was very resistant to the idea of being in a movie. In the end, she really enjoyed it and I’ve actually never worked with an actor who could do whatever I asked so easily, it was really amazing. I wanted a real child because I’m so fed up by these Disney Channel children who project something so fake.
I don’t know very much about the Hungarian film industry — is it easy to get a film like this made there?
I’m not sure I would use the word “easy” but as we are a European nation, we are funded by the state. This was a co-production between Hungary, Germany, and Sweden. I would say that the Hungarian film industry is in great shape but that the politics of our country are in very bad shape and that sometimes creates funding issues. I imagine that’s the case in your country, too.
Can you imagine a scenario where you’d make films here in our system?
Well, that’s a pretty theoretical question. If something came up that appealed to me and I could do it, of course I can imagine it, it’s not like I only see myself as a Hungarian filmmaker. But the real question for me would be whether I can get my vision through the system in your country or would I just be making a “product?” That I am not interested in doing — I am definitely not a product-maker!