MUBI

Watch a new film every day for $4.99.
Try MUBI for FREE.

Learn More

Dogtooth

Kynodontas

Greece

2009

94 Min

Color

2.40:1

Greek

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

1,805 Views

PROD Yorgos Tsourgiannis, Athina Rachel Tsangari

SCR Efthymis Filippou, Giorgos Lanthimos

CAST Christos Stergioglou, Mary Tsoni, Aggeliki Papoulia, Michele Valley, Hristos Passalis, Anna Kalaitzidou

Cannes (Un Certain Regard): Un Certain Regard Award, Toronto (Contemporary World Cinema), London (Cinema Europa), São Paulo, SXSW (Festival Favorites), Transilvania (No Limit), Stockholm (Competition): Bronze Horse, Mar del Plata (International Competition), Rotterdam (Spectrum), Karlovy Vary (Young Greek Cinema), Helsinki (Avainelokuvat), CPH PIX (3X3)

Synopsis

DOGTOOTH is a darkly comic insight into a surreal world of parental control gone mad. Three teenagers are grounded in an alternate world by their overprotective parents, when a female outsider bursts into their bizarre family bubble, with shocking and strangely amusing results.

MOTHER (Michelle Valley) and FATHER (Christos Stergioglou) are so desperate to preserve their children’s innocence that they create a self styled utopia within their secluded compound walls. Completely shut off from the outside world, the now grown up children have their own vocabulary and believe cats to be man eating predators, aeroplanes flying overhead to be toys and small yellow flowers to be zombies. When their father decides to invite his colleague CHRISTINA (Anna Kalaitzidou) in to service the sexual urges of the SON (Christos Passalis) the domestic balance is irrevocably disturbed. It isn’t long before the OLDER DAUGHTER (Aggeliki Papoulia), YOUNGER DAUGHTER (Mary Tsoni) and SON start experimenting with sexuality and violence and the walls of their superficially constructed world of childhood innocence and fantasy come tumbling down.

As shocking and brutal as it is humorous, elegant and entertaining, Dogtooth is a significant piece of bold and inventive cinema.

Director

Giorgos Lanthimos

Giorgos Lanthimos (Greek: Γιώργος Λάνθιμος; born 1973) is a Greek filmmaker and theatre director. He studied film and television direction at Stavrakos Film School in Athens. Since 1995 he has directed feature films, theatre plays, videodance and a large number of TV commercials. He was also a member of the creative team which designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. In 2009, his film Dogtooth won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. –Wikipedia

Wall

Displaying 4 of 242 wall posts.

see all

Zachary W

28Mar13

Many of the issues I have with Haneke are brought to mind here, but what elevate Dogtooth are the moments of sheer joy and levity brought on by something as simple as reciting dialogue from Jaws or Rocky. The world that the Father has created for his family is a fascist re-imagining of bourgeois normality, but there is still hope in Lanthimos's vision that a more powerful image still might puncture this sick façade.

Amanda Medina likes this

Amanda Medina

15May13

Wow, exactly! The same issues with Haneke are brought to mind here.
Amanda Medina

15May13

Oh, as for "Darkly Comed(y)ic I do not see it.

Andreea Rattlehead

22Mar13

The new words of the day are: "Sea", "Highway", "Road trip" and "Shotgun".

$copie

13Mar13

I find it strange to see many are quick to compare Lanthimos' style with that of Haneke's works when Kynodontas so obviously borrows from Pasolini's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. That being said, and although it manages to pose questions of morality, sexuality, and power, Kynodontas makes for a much less provocative viewing experience.

Amanda Medina likes this

aperian

8Mar13

so much family

Related Films

Tyson

Matchbox

Castle of Purity

The Factory

A Dog's Dream

Homeland

Alps

Unfair World

Fans

Displaying 5 of 2680 fans.

see all

Britta

Diogo Henrique Martins

Au Revoir Amélie

familygay

borges

Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.

Notebook Reviews: Giorgos Lanthimos' "Alps"

By Daniel Kasman on July 14, 2012

Giorgos Lanthimos’ followup to Dogtooth suffers from the same problems as his breakthrough.

read article

Venice and Toronto 2011. Giorgos Lanthimos's "Alps"

By David Hudson on September 4, 2011

“It’d be rash to call it a better film than Dogtooth, but it is, in the relative scheme of these things, a bigger one.”

read article

Bertolucci, Lou Ye, Lists and Remembrances

By David Hudson on December 15, 2010

It's a big day for lists, actually, but let's begin with MoMA's Bernardo Bertolucci retrospective, opening today and running through January

read article

"Rabbit à la Berlin" and "Wavy Gravy"; S&S, L and More Lists

By David Hudson on December 8, 2010

Michael Atkinson in the Voice on Rabbit à la Berlin: "Rejiggering the history of postwar Germany into a Shel Silverstein-ish fairy tale about

read article

Venice and TIFF 2010. Athina Rachel Tsangari's "Attenberg"

By David Hudson on September 13, 2010

Let's begin this one with Josef Braun's first review in his first dispatch from Toronto: "Like last year's Dogtooth, which [Athina Rachel

read article

"Wild Grass," "Dogtooth," Fests, Events and Goodbyes

By David Hudson on June 25, 2010

Fortunately, we have Knight and Day behind us, but I'm glad to be updating that same entry still with fresh takes on Restrepo. In this

read article

Movie Poster of the Week: "Dogtooth"

By Adrian Curry on June 25, 2010

Dogtooth, which may be the highest profile Greek release since the heyday of Theo Angelopoulos, opens in the US today after over a year on

read article

ND/NF 2010, 3/30; Orphans, Truffaut, "Star Wars"

By David Hudson on March 29, 2010

"Anchored by a revelatory performance by Alba Gaia Bellugi, The Evening Dress is a keen portrayal of a girl caught uncomfortably in that

read article

SXSW 2010: "Kick-Ass," "Dogtooth," "White Stripes"

By David Hudson on March 13, 2010

So SXSW 2010 has kicked off with Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass, which, according to Peter Martin at Twitch, "does. At its most elemental

read article

The Auteurs Daily: Toronto. Dogtooth

By David Hudson on September 20, 2009

Scott Weinberg: "Former Cinematical chief, close personal friend, and actual superhero James Rocchi said this when I asked him what I should

read article