Dogtooth (2010)

“Canine”

We all think our parents are the worst parents in the world. They never let you go out and they’re always keeping you on surveillance and what not. But always, you never ever know how lucky you really are.

Dogtooth is the disturbingly hilarious Greek drama about a husband and wife who keep their three children locked up in their gated home. The three children – who are not given names but instead referred to as “the eldest” or “the youngest” – are forced to keep within the home’s perimeter and compete in “games” where whomever is named winner gets certain prizes, such as picking the night’s entertainment. However, the kids create their own little alternate universe, which started to get shattered once their father – who is by the way the only one who leaves the premises to work at a factory – brings in an outsider set out to cure the only boy’s sexual urges.

This film is very, very odd and disturbing. The children are very much older, the youngest being around her mid teens and the oldest perhaps even in her twenties. The lack of knowledge they had bothered me because they knew virtually nothing. Whenever they would hear a word associated with “the outside”, their parents would create their own definitions, for example “zombie” is “a little yellow flower” and “pussy” is “a light switch”.

Very, very disturbing.

The title refers to the body part that determines when a person is finally able to venture out to the world, according to the parents. Throughout the whole film, each child tries their best to be the “winner” and be the first to basically escape their prison-esque life.

While considered a satire, I find the humor to be very subtle and not very directly stated. I would instead smile whenever something ridiculous (but not funny in the traditional sense) is on scene. And in a way, it does very much ridicule, I guess you can say, overprotective and overbearing parents.

Dogtooth is by the far the best film I’ve seen from 2010 (although it was released in Greece in 2009) and an outstanding achievement in foreign cinema and cinema in general history. I give this very strange yet brilliant film a congratulating 5 out of 5, and you can catch it now on DVD or Netflix.