by MATTHEW HAYS

Thom Fitzgerald sounds pretty downbeat on the other end of the line. On the horn from his Halifax base, the filmmaker explains that he had to cancel his trip to Montreal this week because his elderly dog had to be put down.

A sad story, but somehow fitting, seeing as we're chatting about his latest work, the strange yet tender The Wild Dogs. Set in Bucharest, the film has a few disparate characters dealing with issues around exploitation and class after their lives intertwine in Romania. A frustrated wife of a diplomat, played by Alberta Watson, struggles to make sense of her existence. A Romanian works to make a living collecting stray dogs, something that sickens him, but something he must do to support his wife and child. And in a neat bit of casting, Fitzgerald himself plays a Canadian pornographer, in Bucharest to see how much bargain porn talent scouting he can do. While obvious, the dogs-as-metaphors-for-us thing doesn't ever grate; Fitzgerald has fashioned a surprisingly subtle film here, and a pleasingly strange one.

The inspiration for The Wild Dogs came while Fitzgerald was shooting a made-for-TV horror movie in Bucharest over two years ago. There, the filmmaker behind The Hanging Garden was receiving notes from the producers about making sure his female cast members' sweaters were tight enough. He also found himself making friends with a number of the street people living there. "I wanted to give a voice to some fascinating people," he says. But don't look for any pat answers from Fitzgerald; the film offers none. Instead, he aimed to illuminate the twin evils of both exploitation and charity.

"Among these people, I found some heroic examples of surviving exploitation. I also learned what an awful thing charity can be. When you travel to other parts of the world, you certainly see the not-so-positive results of charity. Trying to push your own sense of ethics is not always helpful to other people." (No, Fitzgerald is not a reader nor an admirer of Ayn Rand.)

Exploitation nation

One of the characters whom Fitzgerald also incorporates into his narrative is Sour Grapes, played by Visinel Burcea, a man with legs that appear to be on backwards, giving him a spider like quality when he walks. It's a strange appearance, but Fitzgerald says his intentions with this casting were anything but exploitative. "I had already worked with Burcea in the horror movie I'd done there. Collaborating with him was an effort to broaden the cinematic idea of who he is. Yes, he looks striking, but he's a sympathetic and brave character in the film.

"All of the characters I've ever been interested in are people who simply don't fit in. It's certainly true of The Hanging Garden. He's a really lovely guy - I felt his presence and his input into the film were very worthwhile. I think he got as much or more out of making the film than I did."

And Fitzgerald recounts that directing himself proved a challenge, but also a decided pleasure. "It certainly was good for the improvisatory nature of the film. By being in the frame, I could direct scenes from within, rather than giving verbal directions to my actors in-between scenes. I chose not to have a playback. There was no monitor. I just trusted the composition to my cinematographer, Thomas Harting. I think the film looks beautiful."

Fitzgerald has been surprised by some of the response to The Wild Dogs, in particular the charge that the film misrepresents Romania itself. "I was making a film about street people, I was not trying to capture an entire culture. People often think in a nationalist scope much of the time. I don't think this film captures all of the good things about Romania. But that's not my job. That's why they have tourism videos.

"Some have been horrified by the unfair depictions of suffering in The Wild Dogs. Others say they've been rapturously moved, that I captured reality. This movie wasn't really about a specific place. It could have been set anywhere. There's nowhere more exploitative than North America anyway."

The Wild Dogs opens Friday, Aug. 15 at the Cinéma du Parc

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