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EUROFOCUS
GREEKSHAVEAWORDFORIT
INSIDE THE STRANGE, SURREAL WORLD OF THE OSCAR-NOMINATED DOGTOOTH
or international cinema audiences, FGreece has, in the past, generally
meant either the occasional works of a Michael Cacoyannis or Theo. Angelopoulos, or else the exotic
location for films ranging from The Guns Of Navarone to Mamma Mia!
However, there seems to be a new breeze of expectation about Greek Cinema following the global critical acclaim for Yorgos Lanthimos’s Cannes 2009 Un Certain Regard very popular winner, Dogtooth.
Also rewarded since at Stockholm,
Sarajevo and Montreal not to mention
the Catalonia International Film Festival,
Sitges, where it picked up two prizes, Dogtooth is also, most significantly of all, among this year’s five nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in Hollywood.
In this darkly comic insight into a surreal world of parental control gone mad, 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 as 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.
On just his second feature following debut Kinetta, director Lanthimos, working with cinematog- rapher Thimios Bakatakis – known to shoot fast and wherever possible with available light - says of his approach to the visual style: “I never try to visualise a film while writing the script or when I am casting.
“This happens only when I start rehearsing, I start getting an idea of what the film could look like. And in this particular film I thought it should be shot in a way that was quite realistic on the one hand – for example, there is not much lighting and the location is real – but with really strict framing and a cool, surreal look to go with the narrative.
“I guess that this is also related to my general philosophy about filmmaking. To me, it looks fake if you try to be too involved in the way you film things and if you ask your actors to get really truthfully and emotionally involved.
“As much as I don’t like forcing feelings onto my actors, I also don’t like forcing them onto the audience. I prefer to keep the film open to allow
people to get engaged in their own way. “So I try to not guide people to conclusions too much, but rather expose things and have the audience react to what is happening on screen. For me, it is also a way of avoiding being too didactic in my films.
Was the controversial Dogtooth an easy film to get made in Greece?
“There aren’t that many films made in Greece, full stop, and the ones that do get made are usually very commercial and aimed at TV audiences and contain known actors. I got a bit of money from the Greek government for production, but most of the people on Dogtooth had to work for free. I had to ask many favours.”
“I THOUGHT IT SHOULD BE
SHOT IN A WAY THAT WAS QUITE REALISTIC ON THE ONE HAND – FOR EXAMPLE, THERE IS NOT MUCH LIGHTING AND THE LOCATION IS REAL – BUT WITH REALLY STRICT FRAMING AND A COOL, SURREAL LOOK TO GO WITH THE NARRATIVE.”
Dogtooth was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8573 and ETERNA Vivid 160T 8543
Photo top and above: scenes from Dogtooth; 2nd from left: director Yorgos Lanthimos
FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE • THE MAGAZINE • EXPOSURE • 49