Review of Dogtooth (2009) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012

From Greece, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Kinetta (2005) and Attenberg (2010)), this is a dark almost satirical drama-horror about isolation and brainwashing. Done on a shoe-string budget, all within the grounds of one house, it does have it's gory moments, but you feel sorry for the younger characters and what they must have gone through for years.

Set in remote Greece, in a large house with a large garden, it has a father (Christos Stergioglou) and mother (Michelle Valley), who have kept their 3 teenage children in the same house and grounds all their lives.

There's an elder daugher (Aggeliki Papoulia) and the younger daughter (Mary Tsoni) and their son (Christos Passalis). Every day, the kids are taught the meanings of words, even if they are false, like Zombies are flowers and Sea is a chair.

The father brings in security guard Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou) who has sex with the son and has the elder daughter perform cunnilingus for presents. Under pressure, the presents for the elder daughter are VHS copies of Rocky and Jaws, which the elder daughter watches and starts behaving differently, much to the upset of the father and mother.

This has to be the most dysfunctional family ever put on screen, the things the father and mother have the kids do are beyond belief, in fact, there's some parallels between this and what happened with Josef Fritzl.

It makes for compelling viewing, it's surreal and moments of comedy, but you won't be laughing, you'll be in shock that Lanthimos got away with a film as provocative as this, plus it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.

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