Levin Peter and Elsa Kremser: "We wondered all the time about why humans always for these first steps, use animals"
SPACE DOGSCLAPPER: The film tells a remarkable story of Laika, the first living being to travel to space. What was the inspiration behind wanting to tell her story?
LEVIN PETER: We were immediately interested after we found out that Laika was actually straight out from Moscow. So this was the key, the main starting point, because normally people don't know that she was actually living on the streets. And then we started researching about her. We were like “ yeah, we will be amazed by her as a character.” Laika was kind of one of the first pop stars in some good times. So the two ways of abusing an animal, once as a biological test object but second, and more important to us, as kind of a propaganda tool and as a made-up hero, so it was quite rich in the beginning and this was the initial inspiration to start with her.
ELSA KREMSER: And then we've been interested in what her life might have been when she came back and before she was caught living on the streets of Moscow.
The never before seen archive footage is one of the biggest highlights of the film. What was the process you had to go through to obtain it?
EK: Yeah, in our research, we saw some footage which is available in some TV documentaries or even online and stock footage sources. But then we wondered because this was a lot of propaganda material and not just documentary material we thought there must be so much more because the sample showed that there was everything filmed. And so in the end, it took us all in all three years in intensive archive research all over Russia and all over the former Soviet Union, especially until we got the material which was never been shown so far. These reels were stored in an institute who worked with the dogs back then, who mainly made the research about how the body is reacting in all the varied circumstances, regarding preparation, but also after the lending, and in space, and so they had reels, which were just for technical documentation and internal use. And after a very, very long time, like Sure, yeah, three years from the first we knew that it's there. It took us so long to convince them and to that, they trust in us in the project that they hand it to us and that we could finally see it and use it for the film.
The score to the archival footage sounds as if it came out of straight out of 2001 A Space Odyssey. What was the idea behind such epic music?
PL: Yes. First of all, of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey was one of the main inspirations for our film, not just music, but particularly music. The idea was to create as if time in our film is a musical theme. So, before we knew what the music should sound like, we knew it should be a very simple melody. That is kind of repetitive, but it's changing a bit from time to time. This is a very simple idea we wanted to have because there is not much language in the film. The spoken words are just three pages. So we knew the music will be very important in terms of traumatology. So the music was the tool to lead the audience through the film and to form certain like episodes of the film in a certain mode.
In planning for the movie, was there ever an idea to include interviews of people about the legend of Laika?
EK: Actual interviews, No. But in the very beginning, when we were still looking for a pack of stray dogs that we could follow, and when we made some first experience about the myth of the ghost, as I was staring through the streets of Moscow, we encountered several people and so we had this idea that these people are actually talking about the ghost with each other. For example, at the bar, which is very present like this little club, you see often in the field, we had this plan that they are having talks about what they think about the ghost, like a string around and then the dogs pass by. So this was an idea, and we tried it. But in the end, it was a very clear thing that we had to focus and really take the film down to just the perspective of dogs, and really stick with them. Because as soon as humans get to important or had some parts, they just talk to each other too much and the focus gets lost in our opinion, and we really wanted to clearly stick with the animals.
With the decision to stay with only the dogs, the cinematography became very disciplined and patient. Were there ever long waits for the dogs to do something worthwhile?
LP: As you might imagine, much, much more than then you see in the film. We spent almost three months with them. Not non-stop filming but mainly filming for us getting used to them, and more importantly them getting used to us and getting used to the very strange situation we put them in there. It's not normal for them to be watched andnd then we put all our attention to them and as a crew filming them was very irritating in the beginning so actually the first two months of material we did not use because it like a tryout. Like testing things like the technical quality that we wanted to achieve and besides that they do what they want. It's very hard to plan of course, and sometimes we had to wait for hours until they finally woke up or stood up and walked so this was yeah was also one of the main tasks for us as directors of this crew and of this film. To get to make everyone believe that this is gonna work out even though we sit there sometimes for long hours without anything happening.
How long was this shoot? How long did it take from finishing the film to getting it screened?
EK: The shooting we spread it over half a year. We shot around three months. Then we had a very long editing time, like one year and super early we presented it to Locarno Film Festival, which was a very early cut. We still had some so much to wait. The lucky thing in this time was that we didn't kind of fit in pressure. We won so much time for Super intensive colour correction, but also sound design and sound mixing, which we really kind of overdid it or not overdid it but it was still extremely long for a documentary, which was worth it.
The Space Race is one of man's greatest achievements. What do you think it says that we could have never done it without the help of dogs and chimpanzees?
LP: Wow, that is tough to answer. This is weird because I would consider health differently. Health means being conscious about helping. And then when animals are taken from the streets, trains, and so on, these dogs have been put under circumstances that no other living being at that time had been through. It's not only the flight to space itself for some dogs that have been in this program. They lived under these circumstances of being a testing object, let's say for two years for example, and the flight itself, if they had just one or two flights, was sometimes just for several hours and all the other time. They had to had to go through a lot of tests and training which meant to be in isolation box for 21 days, this was the limit. So every doctor that went to space had to stand silently. So I just want to say that all these results the scientists achieved from not only spaceflights, as I mentioned also from all these testings on the ground, they were, of course, huge for the program that continued with first manned space flights. And what I mentioned before is that they also tested the first time with these dogs, how to present these achievements to the public. So there was a big media propaganda, working simultaneously. if you count all these different steps and all these fields of work and of tryouts it's tremendous. But it is a whole dog's life that was sacrificed, many of them in fact, so I don't know.
EK: Yeah, it's tough to name if it was worth it. We wondered all the time about why humans always for these first steps, use animals? Species who cannot speak and you cannot ask for permission. Because then we wonder where the dream comes from. The human dream comes from conquering space and to conquer overall. We just thought “ why don't we go ourselves and use and abuse animals for our dreams”.
The film paints a picture of the relationship between mankind and dogs, ending on the theme of abuses that can occur. Was this the original idea or an outcome of what happens to the puppies in the modern-day footage?
EK: Actually, during our research, we found out a lot of stories about really tough abuse of stray dogs all over the world, but in Moscow it is happening very regularly. And we thought about if we would witness something like that, or if we even tell in the film, in a told narrative way, about all this abuse, because we didn't think about that this actually will happen so close as it did in the end in the film. So these little puppies, we filmed them. For several months for weeks when they were growing up and one day we just came there and this horrible happening took place and this made a deep impact on us because we actually didn't search for it, or expected to really happen in front of our eyes. And then it was an editing decision where to place it in the film but still, for us, it closes somehow the circle because the film starts with one of the most abstract abuses of animals one can do in space. And then we end with something very down tour, but which is not less abusive, like humans killing dogs just because they're there, so this closed the circle for us.
Space Dogs has gone through quite a difficult run, what does the future hold for the film and for you both when it comes to new projects?
LP: What comes next is mainly cinema release as soon as this will be possible in different countries we have released in US and Canada, which is not like there's no fixed date but it will, will come hopefully this year. And Austria and Germany as well. In autumn of this year the film will be released on more accessible territories from August on Germany. Austria will come a bit later in spring next year.
EK: Currently we are working already on the second part of a documentary trilogy. So it will be, again about dogs in Moscow. But this time, the next film is called Dreaming Dogs and Barking Men. It deals much more with the relationship with humans living together with dogs, and so it's about the merge of two species.
SPACE DOGS is awaiting an international release. Interview by Diego … and words by Jacob Allen. Read CLAPPER’s review here.