Dogtooth (2009)

Writer/Director Yorgos Lanthimos
94 mins.

A son, and two daughters. The children have been completely isolated from the outside world their whole lives. Father and Mother teach them a strict and usually absurd system of learning, discipline, and competition with each other. Father acts as if only he can venture beyond their security gate. The children are led to believe that a second, more disobedient son is isolated behind a tall fence, never to be seen.

The only visitor allowed to interact with the children is Christina, a security guard employed at the same plant as Father. She provides physical contact for the son.

Things begin to disrupt this alien environment. Christina makes advances on the daughters. She brings them Hollywood videotapes, causing the older daughter to lapse into memorized passages and scenes.

Father intensifies the imagined dangers of the outside world. He smears himself in fake blood, pretending that the "other son" has been mauled and killed by a small house cat that has wandered into the yard. The son becomes dangerously afraid of this cat.

The children believe that only by losing their "dog teeth" (canines) will they earn passage to the outside world. Which is exactly what older daughter desires.

Lead frame: The human body, at an angle. The characters are in constant symmetry. Even in music and dance.

Father is not very tall, but he becomes an increasingly imposing figure.

Layers of people. Generations of family. Stacks of influence. In this insular environment, everything is passed on and eventually shared. On a side note, Aggeliki Papoulia and Mary Tsoni are eerily closer in appearance than most other on-screen siblings.

More layers. This open garden area becomes a repeated, eerie location on the property, given distinction by a large gray square of indeterminate construction. Another geometric image.

An alternate translation of Kynodontas is Canines, which makes more sense in that it refers directly to the family's behavior, their mythology, and the film's gruesome climax.

Older daughter spits, imitating Rocky after watching a smuggled videotape.

The estate is tranquil, it has to be admitted. Father does not deny his children certain amenities, and the chance to improve mentally and physical, albeit in strict ways. They engage in increasingly dangerous endurance competitions, including running their hands under hot water.

The top image fits neatly over the bottom, though they are not juxtaposed in the film. We wonder what will be passed on from this father to his son.

Father goes for full effect in his campaign against disobedience and a stray cat.

More human shapes. The bodies of the children become their only vessels of freedom. Despite their upbringing, there is still something in side of them that subverts and forges on with the rest of humanity.