www.business-review.eu Business Review | October 2021
36 MOVIE
On screen: ten years’ worth of Wild Romania footage turns into major documentary Dan Dinu and his team filmed Romania’s wild nature and animals for over 10 years, and the resulting documentary, Wild Romania (Romania Salbatica) is now in cinemas all over the country. Business Review went behind the scenes with the director to find out more. By Oana Vasiliu some moments out. Are there any in particular that you really wanted to leave in but ultimately couldn’t? We had to leave out lots of sequences, either because they were incomplete from our point of view or simply because the documentary would have been too long. One of them was about amphibians. We shot several species of frogs, mating newts, and salamanders, but even though we took all this footage, we realised that it could not go into the film. They were even named areas that no longer fit for various reasons, but we have enough material and ideas for a sequel.
What do you want audiences to take away from the film? Are people responding in ways that you had imagined they would? I am very happy that viewers don’t just appreciate the film, but also see it as a very good
How would you describe the documentary for someone who doesn’t know much about Romania and its wildlife?
descriptive, with a small number of animals
educational tool. From the very beginning I
and some stories from their lives. Not because
wanted the whole project to help nature, and
we didn't want to have more, but because
it’s been a success from this point of view.
Our documentary encourages people to ap-
they were complicated to film. After we
Many people who have seen the documentary
preciate nature without being a manifesto.
finished certain sequences, we would add
have told me that the film elicited a lot of
Through the message of the film and the emo-
more script lines, change certain parts, create
different emotions, which again I think is a
tions it conveys, we tried to make people un-
more and more connections. What I wanted
big plus. And a lot of people felt responsible
derstand that nature is not merely a resource
most was for there to be no parts of the film
when they watched the end.
that can be exploited at our convenience; it is
that wouldn’t flow narratively into a unitary
our home, without which we would not exist.
story, so I worked on that a lot. Sometimes,
But all these things come gradually, and they
after a shoot, I would come home and change
are subtly introduced into the mind of the
the script to fit the new story, adjust to what
Since the release, have you seen increased local interest in protecting the natural areas featured in the film?
viewer without being uttered explicitly.
I already had or even give up on some things.
Perhaps it's too early to say whether our film
It was a permanent process of adaptation.
will generate change, but we do hope so. Dur-
Was there ever a point in the collaboration when there were different visions about where the story should go or did you always have a very similar view of what you wanted this story to be?
The closer we got to the end, the better things
ing Q&A sessions after screenings, I received
went. But what I knew from the beginning
lots of questions from people regarding how
was that we wanted to have an emblematic
they could get involved. We receive this ques-
story for Romania and that it had to be as
tion on the Facebook page quite frequently as
authentic as possible, with nature itself as the
well, so we’re hoping that the film has struck
Working on the script for the film was like
main character, not the people.
a chord with audiences and that more nature lovers who see this film will be motivated to
a complicated puzzle. It started about 6-7 years ago, when the documentary was very
I imagine it must have been tough to cut
help out. It would bring us great satisfaction.
