DOGTOOTH (2009)

I hate not getting a film. Especially when it's been hyped up, critics raving about it, awards being given out like business cards by an estate agent, friends who think they are in the know saying 'Oh you must see this, its aaaaaaamazing'.

And that is, unfortunately for me, the case with Dogtooth, a Greek film about a very odd family. The father is the only one of the five that is allowed to leave the seemingly perfect house leaving his wife and three grown up children (probably in their very early twenties) back in their homely prison. The father and mother make up fake meanings for controversial words (zombie is a yellow flower and a pussy is a large lamp for example), they give out stickers for good behaviour as the siblings compete against one another. Its a perfect example of controlling behaviour. Even more so as the children are told that they will only be allowed to leave the home when one of their 'dogteeth' fall out.



And that's the strange set up. And it only gets stranger. The father brings an outsider to the house, a girl to satisfy his son's sexual urges. Her presence though is a disruption as she pollutes the naive, sheltered minds of the children with poisonous ideas from outside the house. Then incest begins, a kitten is slain, a make believe brother is killed off and the parents tell the children that the mother will give birth to twins and a dog. All of this, the children take in their stride, as they are led to believe that their experiences are commonplace.

I'm not against the weirdness or the left field nature of the film, the last thing I want is a Roland Emmerich film every week, it's just that I didn't get the weirdness, which consequently meant that I was kept at arms length from the film throughout. The performances are all very good, particularly from the siblings, who really are naive, innocent children in the bodies of young adults, and deserve plaudits, but I felt detached and could not engage with the characters.

I was never bored though, it kept me on board from start to finish, enjoying the performances and some the striking visual imagery on show, and desperate to become drawn in and connected to the proceedings. There has plenty of charming, kooky moments (in a European cinema kind of way) to enjoy and flashes of brutal violence that shock as well. I was never sure what I was getting next.

The film has stayed with me since. I have been thinking for the whole week since I saw it about what it was trying to say, and I have taken a few thoughts from it, the corrupting influence of sex, controlling through fear, the impossibility of sheltering our children from the ills of the world. It's clearly had an impact on me.

However at the time, while watching the film, and just after the end credits rolled, I asked myself 'what?', and felt very unsatisfied with what I had seen. It has won plenty of awards and people rave about it, so it must be good.....mustn't it?

I just wish I could decide whether I liked it or not.