Dogtooth, or Kinodontas in its original title, is a despotic movie directed by Yorgos Lantimos and released in 2009. It is a philosophical movie that can be taken in any direction in terms of meaning, but has basic concepts.
🎬 Dogtooth
Before moving on to the review of Dogtooth, which many people call the movie of my life, I would like to say that the movie is for the +18 age group, maybe even above. Moreover, although I avoid spoilers, it may contain spoilers in some ways. Finally, I would like to warn that there is disturbing nudity and violence in the movie. The movie can be disturbing in many ways.
In Dogtooth movie, the setting is usually a beautiful house with a big garden, a pool and a high fence where the family lives. This house can be your family, your state or your brain. It is up to you to locate it. Only the father comes out of this house and only he goes in; he works in a factory. The factory is seen many times in the movie. The father has authority. The family is safe inside. The only way out is by car.
At home, there is a teenage boy two girls and a mother apart from the father. The father and mother are aware of everything, but they are raising their children cut off from the outside world, either never informing them about the realities of the outside world or teaching them the wrong way. For example, there is a woman, a security guard in the factory where the father works, who is arranged by the boy’s father to have sexual intercourse with him on a consistent basis. The boy hears the word zombie from her and asks his mother later what it means. She replies “it’s a yellow flower”.
This is present in almost everything in the movie. Entities are taught differently. The truth is distorted. But the parents have no bad intentions in this behavior; they are doing it purely to protect them. But a lot of times this is exaggerated and it is no longer good intentions; for example, after dinner the father puts on a song. He says that the children’s grandfather sang it, even though he didn’t, and he translates it to the children in a completely different way.
One day the boy encounters a cat in the garden for the first time; he kills it with a large pair of scissors. The father then rips off his clothes, pours fake blood on them and tells the children that a creature killed their brother, who them believes lives behind the garden, and that he has not stopped the creature. He says that the creature’s name is a cat and that it is very dangerous. See, the metaphor here is this: Justifying a crime that has been committed. Don’t we do this many times, don’t we deceive ourselves like this?
To get out of the garden, i.e. to be ready for the outside world, children’s canine teeth have to fall out. It is not normally possible for this to happen after maybe one time. Here, freedom is tied to a tooth; if you break it, maybe you will not be completely free, but you will have the idea of freedom and you will free yourself spiritually from the ideas that bind you.
The children are raised like dogs. So much so that we see them barking many times in the movie. This emphasizes that it is how we are raised that makes us who we are.
This established order is protected in such a way that even disgrace can arise for it. I won’t mention this infamy here, and I won’t make those who haven’t seen the movie or don’t want to see it think about the infamy. But the movie Dogtooth ends on the heels of this infamy.
Let’s think; in many ways and the situation you are in is going to permeate this thought; we have a big garden and it is protected by high fences; we are free inside. It is dangerous outside. In what we know and what we do, we are either deceived or we deceive ourselves.
We are as we have been brought up or as we have brought ourselves up. But those who raised us have no ulterior motive. They want to protect us. But either we think so, or they think so, or both are wrong. To change, to be ready for danger, our canine teeth must fall out. Does it fall out if we want to? Yes, if we want it badly.
This is exactly what the movie does; it does not take sides; it does not judge humor, nor violence, nor compassion, nor garden fences. It leaves the thinking to you. It just holds up a mirror.
I can’t recommend Dogtooth to everyone. It can be very shocking for people who are not fully formed in their personality, and if you don’t know yourself or don’t have a certain experience, it can be a heavy and monotonous movie, and even boring. But for me, Dogtooth movie is one of those movies that can be watched and should be watched after a certain age. If you like movies with a story and script based on philosophy, you will like Dogtooth movie.
What are your thoughts? Did this movie appeal to you? Moreover, what do you think about Yorgos Lantimos movies? Please do not hesitate to share your opinions with me in the comments section below.
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