Dogtooth

Dogtooth

This is Oscar season. I am hoping that the Canadian entry for the best foreign film wins. Incendies is a superb film. When I heard that the Greek entry for best foreign film, Dogtooth, was also an entry I had to go to see the competition. Dogtooth is currently showing at the Royal. Until Tiff Bell Lightbox opened on Sept. 12 this was my favorite theatre. The seats are comfortable. The place is clean and attractive. The Royal shows the best films. It all looked so promising when I saw that the theatre was filled.

The film was upsetting, shocking, disturbing and most unusual. It was one of the most upsetting films I have ever seen.

We meet a Greek family living in luxury in an estate that is totally secluded. There is a beautiful pool. The grounds are spacious and luscious. The home is large and beautifully decorated. The father leaves by car each day to go to his factory. The rest of the family remains secluded behind the enormous fence and locked gate. Two girls and a teen age son are told they can only leave when they lose their dogtooth (eye tooth.)The chances of that are highly unlikely.

To me it was a horror story to see how the children were manipulated. They were taught to believe that airplanes fall from the sky and cats could eat them. They were warned that they must never leave the premises as they were protected in that environment. They were even given false names for various items. A zombie was a flower growing in the garden. Common objects were given false names so that their conversation often sounded like gibberish.

The father had complete control over the total family. There is a lot of lovemaking (sex) in this film. The father brings in Christine, who works as a security person at a toll booth. She is to have sex with the son. Every move is done without emotion. It is simply an act. Christine works her way into the family by offering trinkets to the girls if they would have oral sex with her. There are a lot of explicit sexual scenes,

The mother is also a monster. She forces the children to do terrible things. They have contests to see who can hold their breath the longest in the pool. While blindfolded they have to perform a variety of tasks. The reward is a hug from the mother.

The girls also play strange games. At one point they cover their faces with chloroform. The game is to see who will wake up first.

The children frightened me. They fight one another. The lash out with knives. They perform sexual activities with one another. It is horrid.

The parents also have a strange relationship. The father has complete control. He does provide luxuries for the family but at a horrific cost. The mother and father often have sex. It is so perfunctory. It lacks any emotion. Every act in the film is done perfunctory. I was appalled when the children and the mother were on all fours and forced to bark like an angry attack dog.

While the girls do not have overt sex with their father, they do like to cuddle up to him and lick his ears and arms. There is a lot of licking in this film. The son climbs into bed with the parents during the night.

The tension builds. The climax is horrific.

The children run around in bathing suits and crisp white shorts.

If this is an allegory about the dangers of isolationism it certainly points out the pitfalls.

It may be well produced and well directed but the story was very upsetting and shocking.