Andrew Kotting_'Lek and the Dogs'

Award winning artist and filmmaker Andrew Kottinghas adapted Hattie Naylor’s curriculum, award-winning play, Ivan and the Dogs, for cinema. Based on the extraordinary true story of Ivan Mishukov, who walked out of his Moscow apartment at the age of four and spent two years living on the city streets where he was adopted by a pack of wild dogs. Andrew’s interpretation of the story is spellbinding, traversing time and place with Naylor’s text as the spine running through as montages of archival film, featuring voice-overs from animal behaviourists, child psychologists and the venerable Alan Moore, interplay with Ivan’s story and contemplation. Andrew commissioned us to visually disrupt 3 sequences within the film by giving elements in scenes an uncharacteristic behaviour and to design the end credits, for which we discussed the notion of the film not having an ending. These compositing/ special effects interventions are featured within certain scenes, we had freedom of choice from Andrew who perceived the process as collaborative, the effects are very subtle but intriguing if seen by the viewer. The titles were designed to disintegrate and break down with black frames becoming more prominent as the sequence develops, this prompted the commissioner to add a warning to projectionists that it’s ending doesn’t mean their equipment is crashing.

The film is BFI commissioned, produced by Salon Pictures and distributed by Home Artist Film it premiered at the London Film Festival, October 2017 and will be in cinemas Spring 2018.