Review of Dogtooth (2009) by Garry T — 14 Feb 2011

'Dogtooth' (Kynodontas) stands out as the clear dark-horse in the Best Foreign Film category at this years' Oscars. It seems to break rules and set taboo to an extreme, especially in Greek cinema.

'Dogtooth' is about a family (husband, wife, 2 daughters & 1 son) who live in a compound-esque house where only the father is allowed to leave and the remainder stay back in an enclosed world where they are educated in a specific and terribly unorthodox manner.

It's hard to give this film praise if you're a common film-goer, but you don't see watch art-house films often. It's shooting style is that of using a tripod and capturing cut-off elements , regardless of the character or element. Asking the viewer to observe the environment from the angle presented opened up the common eye to different material and some pretty inspiring visuals.

The story seems to stem from the Fritzl Case where an Austrian man had kidnapped, imprisoned and constantly raped his daughter where she would bare children for 20 years -- all in captivity. While what the father is doing isn't technically illegal (well, it probably is), one can only keep the outside world away from their children for so long. This inevitability is met when the father brings in Christina, a security guard from work, to come to the house and help suffice his son's "carnal needs.".

Straight onto the subject, this film was filled with sex. Too much? I think that it had gotten to a point where it seemingly got out of hand when the point was about to be made; it just took too long to get there. Normally, this would bring about lower-than-average ratings. However, after letting this film sit for a couple of days, flashes of certain scenes kept re-appearing in thought, certain scenarios kept re-playing.

'Dogtooth', probably the weakest of the five Best Foreign finalists, told its story in a way where dialogue wasn't needed for many of the scenes; the stark images told a lot of what needed to be conveyed. Minus the ample sex scenes (if I wanted to watch porno, I'd watch porno), 'Dogtooth' gets its point across.