Cultural codes are challenged in this controversial portrayal of a dysfunctional family.
A strict father has found authority within his domestic kennel: a safe haven, where his wife and children can be shielded from the evils of the outside world. The children's behavioral patterns are critically affected by the strange circumstances in which they are brought up-home videos are their only visual entertainment, they are taught that cats are viscous monsters, and they rapturously listen to Frank Sinatra in the belief that he is their grandfather.
But this perversely idyllic bubble is about to come under attack as a female outsider suddenly enters the family's world.
Through inspired direction, Lanthimos orchestrates this strangely plausible dollhouse, letting intellectual acid drips onto initially comical territory as the story dwells into existential doubts, finding itself somewhere in the confused landscape of humanity. An exploration of the fine line between man and animal, "Dogtooth" leaves us wondering if society as we know it is in fact nothing but a zoo.
SEBASTIAN LINDVALL

- Title
- Dogtooth
- Director
- Yorgos Lanthimos
- Country
- Greece
- Length
- 96 min
- Festival
- 2009
- Section
- Competition
- Language
- Greek
- Subtitle
- English
- Production year
- 2009
- Original title
- Kynodontas
- Cast
- Aggeliki Papoulia, Anna Kalaintzidou, Christos Passalis
- Producer
- Yorgos Tsourgiannis
- Script
- Eftimis Filippou, Yorgos Lanthimos