When zombies are flowers
It's hard to make an original movie nowadays. It's even harder to make it original and smart at the same time. But if it's both original, smart and doesn't bore you to death, that is no more and no less a masterpiece. Dogtooth is provoking. It touches a subject that is philosophical, universal and neglected by the cinema. It asks questions like: would we be the same people if we were brought up without respect for the values we believe are essential to live like human beings; would we rather adapt or protest?
- Mommy mommy, what is a pussy?
- Pussy... is kind of a.... strong light.
It begins quite normally. A businessman and respectable father of three drives a car. A woman occupies the passenger seat. She's wearing a blindfold. She can throw it away only after they get there. There, she's left in a room with the father's son where she makes love to him impassively for ten minutes, only to dress up ad engage in a chit-chat with his two sisters afterwards.
A typical continental afternoon.
But the longer we listen to girls' small talk, the stranger are the thoughts coming to our head. And eventually we're pretty sure: those people of Dogtooth live in a different reality than we do.
- Mother, what is a zombie?
- Zombies... are little flowers. We've got one of them in our garden.
What if you didn't know about the world surrounding you? What if your while world was a spacious house with a nice garden, divided from the unknown by a huge hedgerow? How would that affect your personality, your way of seeing things and understanding what's around you? Would you still be a free person with the ability to think on your own? What part of us is the real us and what part is this random mix of planned an unplanned events: appointments, accidents, coincidences? Without the TV, the Internet, movies and video games, and most importantly -- the encounters with other homo sapiens -- wouldn't we just remain permanent children, fully dependent on our parents? And -- what seems most interesting -- living in a world like this, would we accept its rules, its safety and predictability or would we eventually realize that we're being fooled, that the"real life" is somewhere else?
Those questions seem very abstract. They seemed equally abstract for the children of Dogtooth as well. The children with whom their parents played a complex and cruel game called life. But even the most elaborate game is once over. This particular one is over when an alien arrives -- an artefact from the outside world which does not fit their sterile ecosystem. And then it starts cracking.
Question! What would you do if your ecosystem cracked? Would you even notice or would you overlook the obvious as it would simply not fit the reality that you (???) have created yourself in your own (???) head?
- The biggest enemy is the cat. It needs to be killed. It's best to remain at home to be safe.
What are the rules of your life? The ethics. The rituals. Your culture. What happens if you discard them? Can you be re-programmed with mock rules, false replacements? And would it make you less happy? And if it wouldn't then what is their real value? If they are so easily replaceable with brand new ones then perhaps the answer is zero?
- You can leave your home when you are mature enough. You get mature when you lose all your dog teeth.
How many of you, readers of this weird review, would have the courage to knock out your dog teeth?... With a stone? Only to find out what's on the other side?