Review of Dogtooth (2009) by Edgar C — 07 Jul 2013

Thirty six years after Ripsteins' Mexican masterpiece of 1973 El Castillo de la Pureza, Lanthimos does not give proper credit to his sources of influence, yet develops a thorough essay from a personal perspective about the human condition in circumstances of isolation, episodically shifting from a Dogme 95 visual style to the static power of the language of images that would receive Haneke's approval, as a couple of parents play God through the construction of a small universe for their sons while keeping external sources unavailable to any possible extent. Kynodontas borrowed from Mexico's classic:

I. The idea.

Ii. Several scenes, replicated from a different perspective.

Iii. Sexual impulses.

Iv. Domestic violence.

V. The father's authoritative and violent nature.

Nevertheless, Lanthimos' analysis places a "what if" question at the movie's core to discuss what could be the psychological implications for the entire family if they were taken back to their primitive instincts with no external influence. Unlike The Castle of Purity, every member of the family is given equally distributed screen time and development, and they interact more individually, whereas the original was a commentary against the evil nature of humanity and how living a life without belonging to society will ironically build an internal inferno.

No idea is better than the other one; what mattered for me was the plot development and the execution in both stories. The fans of El Castillo de la Pureza tend to be unfair towards this bold Greek modern effort and viceversa. Both deserve justice and credit, because both are different microcosms. The intentions of the father were clear before, but in this film they are not.

84/100.