Variety is the spice of FrightFest and this year is no different and Dog of God from Raitis and Lauris Abele is a prime piece of invention. We chatted to these very talented creatives.
NYX: When did you first here of this 17th century story?
RA: One of my first run-ins with the Livonian werewolf actually happened in New York, of all places — at the Strand Bookstore. It was a dark winter evening in December 2010, and I was studying filmmaking there at the time. After class, I’d often wander the city, and that night I found myself drifting through the endless shelves of the Strand when a book title caught my eye: The Beast Within by Adam Douglas. At first I thought — wait, isn’t that the guy who wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? But no — that was Douglas Adams. Still, this other Douglas had written something unexpected. To my surprise, a big part of the book was about Livonian werewolves. Livonia — the old name for what's now Latvia and Estonia — suddenly appeared in this English-language book, right in the middle of Manhattan. I was stunned. How did this guy know so much about our lands? And honestly, at the time, he knew more than I did about the pagan, folklore-heavy version of our werewolf legends. He had dug up old cases, categorized them, even identified the Livonian werewolf as its own distinct type.
LA:We have a lot of woods in Latvia, it one goes to country side, more to the sea coast, the one will find a local that has met a werewolf or someone who knows someone with that experience. Together with both my brothers we made a short film based on a werewolf story written down by dean of Faculty of Theology. So when Ivo Briedis approached us with the script and the tale. We didn’t know exactly about this trial of Thiess, but we were already into our local werewolf stories.
NYX: How much research did you have to do before starting on the script?
LA: Well, Ivo already did a lot of research. We had to make more research regarding the visuals. Like we scanned real wooden church and then our artist Arthur Gore remodelled it in Blender. We also visited our historical Open air museum to check for all the details, same with costumes etc. That being said we intentionally did also some weird fantasy things, like the lamps in the Tavern are historical reproductions, bet the entrance light in Tavern is pure fantasy. Same for other scenes.
NYX: How do you work as a directing team? Do you split the scenes up or do you have different skills for different types of sequence?
RA: We mostly work together, sometime someone feels more the details and takes the lead, but mostly we leave one to work with actors, then discuss the performance by monitor and then give another direction or give approval. Two heads are smarter than one. But our main artist Harry Grundman was kind of artistic director too, because as he had to rotoscope the actors he worked on specific movements, gestures etc. And also lots of weird humor came from his side.
NYX: Tell me how you worked on the design of each character?
LA: We needed to find the specific actors that, besides their craft, would also be good for rotoscoping. They needed to have a visual look, that works., As weird as it sounds, but let’s say a person with less facial features loses a lot when rotoscoped. We even worked with some physical features so they look more amplified.
RA: We actually did the animation casting before choosing the final actors. The process started with casting on a green or blue screen — we filmed the candidates and then rotoscoped them. Only after seeing the animated results did we make our final decisions. Some actors looked great in real life or on camera, very photogenic — but once animated, they lost their visual impact. And the opposite also happened: actors who didn’t seem particularly distinctive in person suddenly came alive once rotoscoped — their features became unique, expressive, even iconic. That was exactly the case with the character of the Baron. The actor Kristians Kareļins is tall and slim, but when we added a silicone belly (a replica from a pregnant woman prosthetic) and a beard, he became the Baron. After rotoscoping — it was 100% believable. We also worked closely with our costume designer Līga Krasone and makeup artist Zane Žiļinska to make the characters feel slightly cartoonish. We exaggerated features — bigger ears, more defined noses, distinctive eyes. This was partly to help with the rotoscoping process and to make the visuals eerier, but also to pull things slightly away from realism. Even though it's rotoscoped, we still aimed for a sense of realism in the costumes. There’s a clear pattern of how the characters' clothing changes throughout the film — a progression. So despite the animation, the wardrobe was designed with attention to detail and logic.
NYX: How did you go about casting and why did you choose rotoscoping?
LA: We had quite a bit of casting to find the characters with whom to go on a journey. The two hardest ones would be the Werewolf and the priest, as we wanted a warrior priest – one that people would feel afraid of, a menacing figure. With the Werewolf we had a lot of options, but they somehow didn’t work as some were to funny and some to heroic. But with Einars Repse we found what we were looking for. The working title for his character would be Old Madman;)
RA: With Einars Repše, it's actually a whole separate story worth telling. He’s a well-known public figure in Latvia — he was the first President of the Latvian National Bank in the early '90s, right after Latvia regained independence from Soviet occupation. Later, he even became Prime Minister. At one point, he famously crashed his own helicopter. He's always been a unique and extravagant personality. And now… he’s turned his attention to acting. We saw his performance in a short film made by some friends and thought — why not give it a try? Of course, the idea of casting a former Prime Minister as a werewolf was a bit surreal at first. We’d grown up watching him on TV — he was a big presence during our teenage years. So the first casting session was a little stiff. But then I said, “Take off your shirt,” and I took off mine too — and the two of us started barking at each other like wild dogs. That was the breakthrough. From that moment, it clicked — and we knew we had found the perfect werewolf for this film.
NYX: You can almost smell the time and place this has been set, how hard was it to create this atmosphere?
LA: Our first full feature was a re-enactment docudrama “Baltic Tribes. The Last Pagans of Europe” (its on Tubi) about Northern crusade in 13th century. So we already did a huge job regarding historical detail. This is 17th century but its way easier, because from this period we already have more written material like letters, chronicles, diaries etc.
NYX: How long did it take to make from first typed piece of script to final rendering?
RA: It took us two years — which isn’t actually that long for an animated film. But we knew from the start that we didn’t have many resources, so we tried to prepare as much as possible. The main goal was to make the rotoscoping process easier.
Lauris teaches at an art school — Rīgas Mediju un Mākslas Tehnikums — and he knew that during the summer the black box room with the blue screen would be empty. So we made an agreement with the school to shoot there. Using a blue screen and cutting out the background made a big difference — it really streamlined the whole process. Also, we didn’t cut out any scenes. The only one we ended up removing was a short cameo with me and Lauris acting as peasants — and honestly, the acting was just too bad to keep. In the end, a lot of it came down to careful planning and not wasting what we had. That’s probably the key to how we managed to pull this off so efficiently. And now that the film is finished, we finally know how to do it right. We learned a lot along the way — but overall, the whole process went surprisingly smoothly.
NYX: Are you at all religious?
RA: I’d say I’ve tried religion in my own way. One of my best friends’ fathers is a priest — he baptized me and a group of our friends just before we started university. We had long conversations at his house that went on for about a year, exploring everything from Carlos Castaneda to what Jesus might have done before turning 33, and even near-death experiences. But I’m definitely against a dogmatic approach to religion — the kind that says “this is right” and “that is wrong.” I believe that, as a society, we should be past that. Sure, it was part of our development at one stage — and that should be acknowledged — but it’s time to move beyond it. To integrate it, not cling to it. Unfortunately, some people still act as if their worldview is the only correct one. And in a way, the only real critique of religion in Dog of God is aimed at exactly that kind of rigid, dogmatic thinking.
LA: I am not baptized or initiated in some other religion, but I have done quite a few spiritual practises, so I have no problem at all with the concept of the Great Spirit or any religion. Though, I would say that any religion loses its meaning when used as a mechanism of control.
NYX: This is a piece which the great Ralph Bakshi would have been proud of.
LA: Ralph Bakshi was the main influence for us. We did this movie our style, but with the all respect to the craft and worldbuilding of the great filmmaker.
RA: Definitely yes!
NYX: What is the film industry like in Latvia?
RA: Despite being a small country of just two million people, Latvia is becoming more and more recognized in international film circles each year. Flow did a great job of bringing attention to Latvian animation — a field with deep traditions. Unfortunately, due to 50 years of Soviet occupation, many artists were forced underground — censored and unable to share their work with a wider audience. I hope our government increasingly recognizes the importance of investing in filmmaking and the arts — because art can cross borders. Commercially, with such a small population, it’s difficult to succeed by relying solely on Latvian-speaking audiences. That’s why we need more universal stories — like Flow, which works almost as a biblical metaphor. We’re proud to be part of today’s generation of filmmakers in the Baltics. It feels like, for the first time, we’re meeting each other more often at European — or even American — festivals than just back home on the streets. Stepping beyond national borders is really starting to happen. And I believe we from the Baltics have a lot to say — we've lived in two very different worlds, and right now we’re seeing major political shifts unfold. Many of us know firsthand what occupation means — and how important freedom of expression really is.
NYX: Will you be nervous when the film has its UK premier at FrightFest 2025?
LA: I think yes and in a good way. It’s a UK premiere, we feel very honoured by this!
RA: This will be our (mine and Lauris’) first festival in the UK. We’ve been to many festivals across continental Europe — from Cannes to Tallinn Black Nights — but this will be our first proper experience with a UK festival. We’re really looking forward to meeting the genre crowd in London.
NYX: So, what are you working on at the moment?
RA: Right now, we’re doing the festival run with Dog of God and trying to enjoy the summer as much as possible — because come autumn, things are about to get intense. We’re heading into two productions simultaneously. The first is a six-episode TV series titled Shadows of the Swamp, commissioned by Latvian National Television. It’s a crime mystery about the ghost of a drowned Nazi officer haunting the swamps, calling out to weak souls. Think True Detective Season 1 meets Twin Peaks with a touch of Andrei Tarkovsky. (At least, that’s the hope!) And just as we wrap that, we jump straight into our second feature film, Wagner and Satan — a foot-chase thriller about a young, not-yet-famous Richard Wagner escaping to Riga (he really did live in our hometown when he was 26). The story centres around a stolen Masonic manuscript containing sheet music so powerful it can drive the listener insane. The only way to save the world is to chase Wagner down… and possibly stop him — or even kill him. That’s the chase. We’ve secured around 75% of the financing for Wagner and Satan, so we’re nearly there — just a bit more to go. And as for animation and rotoscoping — yes, something’s cooking. We’re in early development on a super weird story, but we still need to secure the rights, so I can’t say much just yet. But stay tuned — it’s going to be strange in all the best ways.
NYX: Raitis Abele and Lauris Abele, thank you very much.
LA: Thank you for the cool questions.
RA: Yes. See you in London!
