Dogtooth is a Greek film that is in competition for the Best Foreign Film Oscar this year. When I read that yesterday my eyes almost fell out of my head. This is not the typical Oscar film. Pardon me if my review of this film is weak. It is a difficult movie to discuss and sometime even watch. I did enjoy this movie, but in a twisted way.
Dogtooth centers around a family that lives in an isolated location in Greece. Their home has a large wooden fence around it. The only way in or out is through the main gate. The family consists of a father that drives everyday to a generic factory where he has a generic job. A house mother, two daughters that are not twins, but look very similar, and a son. The children are in their late teens. So far so good. Nothing out of the norm.
The children have never been outside the houses perimeter. The parents have told them that the outside would is evil and disease is rampant. They are completely cut off from any and all exposure to the world around them. No TV, no radio, no computer or Internet, no print media, nothing. No one enters the house with the exception of a coworker to the father that he brings in to satisfy his sons sexual desires. All this seems to be an attempt to shelter their children from "bad" things. As I have explained this film to my girlfriend and another friend their comment was "kind of like The Village". This movie makes M. Night Shyamalan's The Village look like a Disney film.
This rouse goes so far as to assign false names to things that they might deem unacceptable. For example; when the daughter asks what a knife is the mother tells her a knife is a bright shiny light. Like a tiny light bulb. When asked what a phone is (in an attempt to hide the existence of telecommunications) the father tells the children that a phone is a salt shaker. The son later asks the mother to pass the phone over diner.
The down side to sheltering children from all evil is that they have no conscience of bad behavior. At one point the son steals a small plane toy from one of the daughters. She in return grabs a large kitchen knife and slashes his arm open. As you can imagine this plan starts to fall apart. The sexual surrogate begins to trade goods for oral sex with one of the daughters. She in turn then silicates oral sex from her own sister for the right to play with toys.
This is a sick and twisted movie. It has moments of parental approved incest, vicious beatings with bloody outcomes, child abuse both mental and physical, as well as a cat murder, moments of pornography and dementia. The daughters play a game where they both take a cloth, douse it with anesthesia, and cover their own faces. The first one to wake up wins!
Even with all the madness and perversion, it managed to charm and intrigue me. This is not a movie that I am in a rush to watch a second time and I would not recommend this film to anyone, but that doesn't mean that I didn't like it. I did. And I give the Academy credit for selecting a film not in their wheelhouse to award a nomination to. I can't wait to see the montage on Oscar night. I give Dogtooth a 4/5 stars. Check out the Trailer Park to see for yourself.
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