Film Reviews

Dogtooth

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• Details: Greece / 94mins (18).

Dysfunctional families are usually fodder for comedies but this winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes is something different (and darker) altogether. What if you could raise your children in complete isolation from the world, what kind of people would they become? That's the question posed by Dogtooth, a totally original and enthralling drama.
They don't have names, just simply Eldest (Papoulia), Son (Hristos Passalis) and Youngest (Tsoni) - three children of Father (Stergioglou) and Mother (Michelle Valley), a misguided Greek couple who have raised their children without influence from the outside world. Their education has been an odd one: the phone is salt, the sea is an armchair, cats are deadly creatures, Frank Sinatra is their grandfather, and they can only leave the house and grounds when their 'dogteeth' have fallen out. Despite being in their late teens and early twenties, the children are essentially infants and incapable of fending for themselves. Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou), a security guard at Father's plant, is the only outsider allowed in (her job is to service Son's sexual needs) but her intrusion has drastic consequences...
Why are they doing this? That's the question that keeps popping up. One of the rare scenes outside the fenced-off compound that lies deep in the Greek countryside hints at an answer: a dog trainer tells Father that his goal is to teach dogs how to behave, how to respect and how to obey. Is this a political film - keep people stupid and they're easy to rule? Or is it a slap in the face of controlling parents who involve themselves in every facet of their children's lives? The beauty of Dogtooth is that it can be both or neither. Regardless of the message, this is an engrossing film. It flips everything - for the most part dramas place extraordinary situations on ordinary people; this one follows an extraordinary family who find themselves battling everyday life.
With the theme, the dialogue, the performances and the direction all singing from the same hymn sheet, Dogtooth is a film that continually feeds itself. Because the story is odd and off beam, the direction mirrors this: Lanthimos' camera sometimes cuts the heads off his actors, or he shoots them half out of frame. Everything going on behind the camera suggests that everything is wrong in front of it. Bar some brief and unexpected outbursts of violence, the performances, just like the lives of the characters, are ordered and structured - almost robotic. An always interesting and unsettling film, Dogtooth is powerful stuff.

Review by Gavin Burke