Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos in 2010, and now re-released to selected cinemas, Dogtooth is a deeply flawed and disturbing feature in which three adult children are kept in the family compound, without names, prospects, or knowledge.
Restored in 4K for re-release into cinemas. it remains a piece of work that polarises audiences with its content, while displaying a flair for what the camera can do. It’s a lovely, sharp restoration from a technical standpoint.
The controlling father and ineffective mother keep their children in a state of suspended growth. These people are not children, but their understanding of the world has been stunted and restricted. Regular objects have gained names from the outside world of which they have never been exposed.
At first we are lead to believe this is absurdist comedy, and so it is now and then, but it also includes one of the gravest scenes of animal abuse ever seen on screen, and I advise any cat lover to avoid. The three children believe, or invent, a brother out in the wider world on whom they can pin their own hopes and fears. It’s a cruel plot device to keep the peace.
There is a lot of violence, sexual abuse, and psychological trauma in Dogtooth. It could be read as an allegory on political freedom, or the ramblings of a deranged mind. Perhaps it is both, or neither. Each scene seems clearly thought out and planned, but the acting is often a little off, too stagnant, too rehearsed.
Ironically, mother, just as much as prisoner as her children, works in security, while father has an office job in a factory, appearing an ordinary man before those who do not suspect the truth. The children use play as power, unable to form any straightforward alliance and unable to make the step to thought that may free them.
With an ending that is both frustrating and devastating, Dogtooth raises questions like whether any family does live like this somewhere in the world. The abuses of mind and body are the most sensational of tabloid tropes, but, distasteful though they are, Lanthimos puts in the time to make them brutally realistic, twisted, and horrific.
Dogtooth returns to UK & Ireland cinemas on 29 Aug via Vertigo Releasing.