Bogdan Mustata on Workshopping ‘Wolf’ at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab

He’s 35 years-old. He lived for four years in Vietnam and one year in Dubai. He likes sports; in 2007, he ran in the Dubai marathon. He graduated the Romanian National Film School. He’s both: a director and a screenwriter. This is Bogdan Mustaţă, an almost anonymous filmmaker until he won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Int. Film Festival for his short film, A Good Day For A Swim (O zi bună de plajă).

This past June, Mustaţă participated in the 2010 Summer edition of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab with his first feature project: Wolf – a surreal tale, about a young boy’s dearest wish that comes true when his absent father is quite literally reborn and joins the family once again. I had the opportunity to speak to the filmmaker and get his impressions on the Sundance lab experience and the process of workshopping the screenplay for his feature film.

Marin Apostol: You were recently invited to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. How did you find the experience and what have you learned from the six Creative Advisors?
Bogdan Mustaţă: I participated with the project Wolf and all meetings of Sundance were referred to this project. The Lab’s aim was to provoke you to think about your project from different perspectives. Six meetings meant six different views on the screenplay. There were meetings where you felt understood and supported, and there were others you had the impression that [the screenplay] was a total failure. But less successful meetings ask you questions about your screenplay and may prove useful. There was always communication between authors and organizers, organizers and the advisors and among advisors and that made it very open. Discussions are important and so is the communication, and even the organizers insisted not to sit and write during all meetings. I understood that nobody solves your problems with a screenplay. In the end, you go home alone to think and write. Sundance Screenwriters Lab challenges you.

Apostol: What happened during those five days? Was all work and no play?
Mustaţă: I came from Europe, so I was asked to come somehow earlier to get used to local time (which never happened anyway, until the day before I get back from Sundance) and that is why I was there a whole week. So I had time for fun too. That meant mostly climbing mountains, sunbathing or having a chat at the Sundance bar with other participants, advisors and organizers, about every night. During those five days the schedule has been very busy, with two meetings per day, two projections and other meetings.

Apostol: Has this event changed, somehow, the way you approach to a script or a movie? Has influenced your work?
Mustaţă: No. Everyone was very respectful of your own vision, but not only on the screenplay and how to build a screenplay. Eventually, one of the selection criteria is originality. For independent films that Sundance Institute promotes, they believe it is essential that we keep our originality.

Apostol: You received the Golden Bear two years ago for A Good Day for a Swim. But there has been no feature in your portfolio so far. Did the award somehow help open doors for your next project?

Mustaţă: Yes, it helps. But I think every director has his own rhythm, each project waits for the right time. And it seems that the time has come for this project.

Apostol: What can you tell me about Wolf? What the film is about?
Mustaţă: I don’t want to talk about it. The project has been through several programs (Script&Pitch, Torino Film Lab, Sundance, Nipkow), markets (Sarajevo, Cottbus) and everybody asked me to say ‘what is the movie about’. In 5 minutes, 10 minutes, in half an hour. In 800 characters, in 1200, 1500… I answered because those were required in the process of development and financing but if I can choose… no, I do not want to summarize the film just in one sentence.

Apostol: Can you tell me when you hope to begin shooting and the date on which you think will be the premiere? Do you have any ideas how the cast will look like?
Mustaţă: We’ll start shooting somewhere in the middle of next year. If everything goes well as planned. And in terms of the cast, there is no decision taken yet, it is far too early. The main character is 16, so he’ll be an amateur. He will be searched first and depending on him we’ll build the other characters.

Apostol: And Bogdan Mustaţă’s top 5 all-time movies are…?
Mustaţă: Probably the first movies i’ve seen when I was little: Superman, Star Wars … seen at the Gloria Cinema. But I’m going to go with five films that I’m thinking of right now, which had a great influence on how I think of ‘Wolf’:

1. Bruno Dumont – L’Humanite
2. Angela Schanelec – Marseille 
3. Valeska Grisebach – Sehnsucht
4. Harmony Korine – Gummo
5. Michael Haneke – The Seventh Continent