DAVID BYRNE INTRODUCES THE FILM AT NEW YORK’S CINEMA VILLAGE, 22 EAST 12 STREET, NEW YORK.Language : Russian professional (monophonic) Director : Giorgos LanthimosĬast : christos Stergioglou, Michelle Valley, Aggeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni Description : The house on the outskirts of live mother, father and three children. The audience is suddenly in the throes as indirect–and perhaps unsought–surveillance.ĭOGTOOTH OPENS TODAY. As with most dystopian narratives, shock and repulsion are often followed by realizations of parody and critique. Stationary, faceless shots capture the siblings’ infantilized conversations and hints at their disenchantment as we watch two pairs of legs wearily pace back and forth in the bedroom.
Beautifully shot, Dogtooth paints the fallout of a caged and delusive upbringing. Lanthimos portrays his character’s unraveling without veering into prosaic teenage rebellion hers is violent, puerile, sweaty, disturbed and quietly hysteric. Copies of Jaws and Rocky infiltrate the compound, triggering the older sister’s attempts to dissent. Of course, the family’s isolation is eventually challenged. “Zombies” are little yellow flowers that grow in the yard, a salt shaker is a “telephone,” and “pussy,” means “a big light.” Similarly, language is Newspeak-esque, debased and droll. The film’s darkest comedy occurs in these scenes: a competition to see who can remain self-anesthetized and passed out the longest a race to catch a toy plane, perceived as real and to scale, that has fallen from the sky. Heretically detached from the outside world, the two daughters and son invent games to fight their boredom.
Infractions are not tolerated, while compliance is awarded with tiny stickers that decorate the headboards of each adult child’s bed. The rules of the house are set and must be obeyed. He returns with food-store-bought fish he later “hunts” with a speargun in the family swimming pool-and with Christina, the only named character (Anna Kalaitzidou), and a factory security guard he has hired to have sex with his son. Only the father is permitted to leave the property. Set against a manicured home with white walls, trimmed hedges, chaste pinks, and ecru, an unnamed Greek family with two daughters and a son (Aggeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni, Hristos Passalis) live in absolute isolation. And yet, despite these grave and estranging conceits, the 2009 Cannes winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard is a persuasive portrait of brash realism in an alternate world. Sex as service, strict edicts as sport, and the horrors of quarantine are only some of the film’s main psychological charges. Artfully executed, the disturbing story of a patriarch’s (Christos Stergioglou) perverse reach for authority is not intended for all audiences. Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth (in theaters today) does not go down easily.
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