Marian Dora is the pseudonym most commonly used by an anonymous German art director, cinematographer, actor, screenwriter, editor, producer, composer, assistant director, makeup artist, special effects/sound/camera/electricity technician, and set decorator/designer, anagram of his actual name, occasionally also credited under several other pseudonyms including Marian Dora Bolutino, Marian Dora Botulino, Marian D. Bolutino, M.D. Botulino, Marian D. Botulino, Art Doran, M.D. Bolutino, A. Doran, and Marian Dallamano.
Biography
Marian Dora's first appearance in the film scene dates back to the early 90s, when he started making short films as member of a group of anonymous underground filmmakers. Some of these short films were featured on two anthologies, Blue Snuff 1 and Blue Snuff 2. Dora then started working as film producer, editor, and second unit director on several films by Ulli Lommel, whom he had met and started a long-time partnership with in 1996, including Zombie Nation, Green River Killer, B.T.K. Killer starring with music composed by Robert J. Walsh about Dennis Rader, Killer Pickton, and Absolute Evil. Although Dora had already shot his first feature-film, Debris Documentar, in 2003, his debut as director was marked in 2006 by Cannibal, a reconstruction of the case of Armin Meiwes, who killed and ate a willing victim whom he met on the internet. The film was originally an assignment from Ulli Lommel, but Dora had to release it by himself after its rejection by Lommel because of its extremely gory nature. Cannibal achieved resounding success in the underground film panorama, allowing Dora to start the shooting of his next work in the same year. Melancholie der Engel, Dora’s third film, premiered on 1 May 2009 at festival in Berlin and won the “Best Arthouse Feature Film” prize at New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. According to Dora, the shooting of the film was a nightmarish experience full of madness, violence, and drug abuse. Melancholie der Engel generated a lot of controversy because of many scenes involving rape, coprophilia, zoophilia, and real animal cruelty. The controversy surrounding Melancholie der Engel resulted in several death threats to Dora and the end of his partnership with Frank. Reise nach Agatis, Dora’s fourth work, was released in 2010. A DVD version of the film featured Debris documentar as bonus disc, marking its first release nine years after the shooting. In 2012 Dora was confirmed to be the director of Mors in Tabula, one of twelve segments developed for the anthology The Profane Exhibit. In 2014 Dora released his fifth film, Carcinoma, about Gautama Buddha, Psalms 73:14, Hail Mary, John 1:14, Mary, mother of Jesus, Luke 1:28, 42, Moses, Jesus, and Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach, under the name of Art Doran. The film won an award at the 2015 Sadique-Master Festival, held in Paris. In 2017 Dora appeared in a documentary called Revisiting Melancholie der Engel, walking Swedish filmmaker Magnus Blomdahl through the film’s locations and talking about the making of the film.
