•• Foreign Film Edition ••
KYNODONTAS [DOGTOOTH]
[2009, GREECE - Greek]
Prior to DOGTOOTH, Greek film and theatre director YORGOS LANTHIMOS's name is not exactly widely heard of, and this bizarre family drama (his third feature film, after MY BEST FRIEND and experimental film KINETTA) which boldly pushed boundaries in filmmaking, though initially released in only two arthouse cinemas in Athens, catapulted his career into a number of international film festivals, and went on to garner a slew of prizes for the forty-three year old filmmaker including two from the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard Prize and the Prix de la Jeunesse), five prizes from the Greek Film Academy (including Best Film, Best Director and Best Script), and a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards.
DOGTOOTH drowns audience into claustrophobia that unfolds in a carefully stylized, and oddly framed sequences within the confines of an opulent family house somewhere in Athens. The beautiful house equipped with a huge garden and swimming pool is inhabited by a married couple who decide to raise their three children by locking them away from the world, and recreate a surreal world for them within the confines of the household, entangled by the parents' bizarre educational methods as well as cruel whims and games. The children, young adults close in age - an older sister (AGGELIKI PAPOULIA), younger sister (MARY TAONI) and brother (CHRISTOS PASSALIS) who have no given names - are raised without leaving the family compound all their lives. Manipulated into fear-driven obedience by their father (CHRISTOS STERGIOGLOU), the siblings are taught inaccurate vocabularies (telephone is a salt shaker for instance), and absurd ideas including cats that are deemed dangerous man eaters.
In its own implausible way, the film basically centres around parents' extreme degree of protecting their children, even if it means quelling their curiosity and stunting their growth. Lanthimos offers no clue to how this family got this way, and this is pivotal for the film's purpose. "(otherwise) you would be too engaged in judging if it was right for them to behave that way depending on the reasons they had for doing so. What interested me most was the result of their actions and to see how far you can go when messing with people’s minds and making them believe the things that you want them to believe. It’s a very dangerous thing to do and I hope my film provokes reactions from people because in the film it is obviously too late. Sooner or later this had to explode," the Athens-born director shared.
What I liked about this film is how it commingles its surreal beauty and violence. The director also shared his intentional approach of bringing forth such contradiction - "I wanted the contrast of parents trying to create a very beautiful environment where the kids were beautiful, where everything’s beautiful. And next to all of that, these things that they’re doing are horrible and tragic - they’re destroying and deforming their kids in many ways. This thin line of going from tragedy to humor to ridiculousness is something we really wanted to keep."
DOGTOOTH is a film that requires finesse and complete command of visuals and performances. Such an achievement is the cinematography that you'd feel as if you are looking at a series of family photographs that are equally ravaged in dysfunction and captivating, you'd just want to continue watching.
Rating: B+
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