Top 5 by Bogdan Mirică of must-see thrillers
Bogdan Mirică’s second feature, BOSS, a heist movie based on a true story, hits theatres on April 21. We invited the director to share with the genre fans some of the titles that served as inspiration for his new upcoming film.
BOSS is Bogdan Mirică’s second feature film, following his award-winning debut Dogs, which earned him the FIPRESCI Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival (2016), and the popular HBO series Shadows, which he created.
Inspired by true events, the film tells the story of an ambulance driver from Bucharest who takes part in an armed robbery with other men and becomes caught up in a complicated investigation.
“In 2009, a robbery took place in the Gutâi Mountains, during which several masked individuals wearing special forces insignia and armed with automatic weapons stopped an armoured vehicle under the pretext of a routine check. After immobilising the guards, they fled with a significant amount of money. Later, the perpetrators were caught, and the mastermind behind the operation – Ioan Ursuț – hanged himself in prison in 2012, on the very day when the DNA analysis related to the Gutâi robbery was scheduled to be debated in the Maramureș Court,” expands Bogdan Mirică on the real-life event that inspired the film.

The director explains that, more than the police investigation itself, he was interested in the mysticism surrounding the case to create the film’s universe: “At one point, it was rumoured that the robbery had not been organised by Ursuț, but by someone so well camouflaged within the state structures that they practically did not exist – and you cannot investigate what does not exist. True or not, this obscure, hazy part inspired me much more and gave me the angle for the film.”
With a filmography indicating a preference for noir films, we asked Bogdan Mirică what titles within the genre have stayed with him, how they helped him in the creative process and inspired him in making his new film, BOSS.
“As much as I may be a fanboy, when I like a director, I’m not interested in copying/quoting their finished product (i.e. the film) because I write intuitively, trying to preserve an emotion, and emotions cannot be replicated. Instead, what I’m seeking is doing a kind of reverse engineering of the process — that is, starting from the film to reach the initial intention — because that helps you understand how a directorial vision is built. And on another level – for the heist movie fans out there – I wanted to deconstruct the genre and play with the tropes, because… why not?,” says the director.
Below you’ll find Mirică’s thriller recommendations.
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The Killing (1956)

The first film on my list has to be Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956), about a racetrack robbery meticulously planned by a veteran criminal (Sterling Hayden). Even though the heist is successful, that’s not the end of the story, as the robbers themselves are also robbed. Kind of like a heist movie inside a heist movie. I think The Killing represents all that is good and has been lost in many contemporary genre films – a complex story with multiple narrative threads doesn’t mean you can’t explore in depth the characters, and in Kubrick’s film, each character is a pretext for dissecting the deeply corrupt nature of humanity.
Sexy Beast (2000)

Another heist movie that stayed with me is Sexy Beast (2000) by Jonathan Glazer, starring Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley, who, in my opinion, deliver the best performances of their careers. Although the heist on its own is thrilling and original (the bank vault is flooded and the whole heist takes place underwater), the truly fascinating part to me is the relationship between Gal, the protagonist, and Don, a sociopathic, vulgar, unpredictable, and extremely funny gangster. Plus, Glazer, being a well-known commercial director, masters his craft perfectly – the editing and music are on point.
Heat (1995)

Rounding out the middle of the list is Michael Mann’s Heat (1995), which I see as the main reference. The idea originally materialised in LA Takedown, a TV movie made by Mann in ’89. Even though the DNA is the same, Heat is in a whole different league. It might be “just” a classic cops and robbers movie, but the precision with which Mann builds its universe is fascinating – maybe that’s why if you watch it today, almost 30 years later, you realise that the film doesn’t age. In fact, I think it’s even more fresh than most movies coming out these days.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Not necessarily a heist movie, because technically there is no heist, but close enough, John Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) is a gem that depicts the collapse of a man caught in the cogwheels of the world he lives in. Ben Gazzara’s character is like a mouse trapped in a maze, with salvation and collapse into chaos awaiting him at every corner. For me, this film is clear proof that the thriller is not a subspecies of the “serious” film, and also that it does not automatically mean a bunch of twists and turns.
The Getaway (1972)

Written by Walter Hill (The Driver, The Warriors, Southern Comfort) and directed by the poet of violence Sam Peckinpah, The Getaway (1972) has one of the best opening scenes I’ve ever seen. There’s something about American movies – a visceral extension of the fleeing-for-the-border spirit, of the fight for survival – which when done well, as it does in The Getaway, has something of the perfect simplicity of a haiku. It’s no coincidence that four out of the five films above are American.

An article written by the magazine's team