The Sea is an Armchair: Dogtooth

by Anastasia Papas (the godmotherr)

I found out about Dogtooth while watching an interview of Colin Farrell promoting his new film, The Lobster, and he was relaying his first encounter with director Yorgos Lanthimos' films. "What the f*** did we just see?" was but one of the comments Farrell had for the film after watching it with his sister in Philadelphia. I immediately looked up the trailer and was instantly attracted to the ideas the film was indulging in. I recognized the name Yorgos Lanthimos as a greek name and I suppose I also felt somewhat obligated to support my fellow hellenic by watching the film. With a boastful rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes (my film bible) I knew it was a film I would have to see. Without much research thereafter I entered the greek world of family, sex and ultimate deception. 

Dogtooth, starring Angeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni as well as Christos Passalis, was written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and was released in the year 2009 (one year after the Josef Fritzl case broke). The film focuses on a greek family consisting of a mother, a father, two daughters and a son that all live in the middle of nowhere, far, far away from society. The parents of this family (played by Christos Stergioglou and Michele Valley) have raised their children outside of the educational norm of the present day. Instead of going to school and learning the conventional vocabulary, the children are forced to remain within the confines of their home lot and learn the meaning of words through their mother's homemade voice-recording tapes. An example of one of the words the children learn is the meaning of the sea. "A sea is a leather armchair with wooden arms like the one we have in our living room." This is done so as to further solidify the children's absence of understanding or knowledge of anything behind their wooden gate. The film follows the family and the parents' many measures to guard their children from the 'evils' of the outside world. The only two people who ever leave and enter the compound is the father - to work and to purchase the household needs - and a women named Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou)  - the only named character in the entire film. Christina is a security guard who is paid by the father to sexually please the son in the family. She forms relationships with the children until one day she goes too far and is relieved of her prostitute duties. Dogtooth is an extreme model of concerned, conservative parents who box in their children and the consequences of them doing so.

I can honestly say that after watching the film I had no idea what I had seen. I understood the basics of everything, but I knew I had missed a lot of meaning that Lanthimos intended. So I did what I always do after watching a film and researched the hell out of it. I read countless articles and interviews until I was satisfied I understood enough to analyze it on my own. Before that though, I had a lengthy discussion about it with my fellow critical movie analyzer, Martin Puga. So where do I start with such a deep movie? 

One of the things I found most intriguing was the way in which Lanthimos gave each child their distinct personality. The youngest daughter (Tsoni) is portrayed somewhat as a medic. She often gives massages and other medical treatments and diagnoses to her older sister and is always using drugs in her creation of new games. The older daughter (Papoulia) is seen as the most rebellious of the children. She is the one who ultimately escapes (escape perhaps is the optimistic view of the ending) and is the first and only one to question and explore beyond her mental confines. What is interesting about the eldest daughter is that she provides herself with a name, Bruce. This chosen identifier is one of the first actions she takes against her world and allows her to enter the path to individuality and knowledge. The son (Passalis) is perhaps the least impressionable character to me because he lacks his own character. The son's character is found in the way that he is treated in the family. He is the only son and despite the fact that all three children are in their 20s, the son is the only one who is thought by the parents to need to be sexually satisfied. Enter: Christina. Herein lies an important theme of the film: the sexist gender roles in greek families. It is important to note that in a traditional greek family the males are always placed above the females in the family. That being said, females in greek families are made to be taken care of and protected and that kind of treatment creates controlling personalities. This sexist balance is clearly shown in Dogtooth. We have one pioneering father, one behind-the-scenes puppet-master mother, two innocent daughters and one sexually catered for son. The ultimate sexist blow in the entire film is that even though innocence in the daughters is necessary, what is more necessary is the son's sexual needs. This is clearly demonstrated when one of the daughters must replace Christina in the film.

One of the characters that interested me was the father (Stergioglou) and the way Lanthimos chose to represent him. What I found incredibly annoying about the film was the fact that the subtitles did not truly translate what was happening in the film. The reason I did not hate the father as much as I maybe should have was the fact that he treated his children with affection like any other father and yes, his and his wife's practices were unacceptable, but it is evident that he is doing this because he believes it is the best for his family. He often uses terms of endearment when speaking to his children, such as "agapi mou" and "koukla" - words I understand as a greek-speaking person - but that is not once shown in the subtitles. I understand that it is impossible to directly translate from one text to another without it making no sense, but these terms that the father uses are important for the audience to see so as to make a better judge of his character. I asked my friend, Martin, about how he felt about the father figure in the film and he told me that he hated him entirely. However, if those translations had been in the subtitles perhaps he would have had an alternative perspective. 

Finally, one of the last symbolisms I want to divulge in is the movie's title, Dogtooth. Besides the fact that the falling out of the dogtooth is said by the parents to be the only indication to the children that they are old enough to leave the house, there are essentially no dogs in the film. The only scene in the entire film where a dog is present is when the father of the family is at the dog training centre trying to collect his dog which, may I add, has the most common name given by greek people to their dogs: Rex. In the film the dog is not yet trained therefore he is not allowed to leave the training centre, much to the father's dismay. Other than this incident there is not a lot of emphasis or reasoning behind the whole spectacle. I asked myself why would Lanthimos choose a dog to represent so much in the film? It came to my awareness that dogs are always labelled as loving and loyal and these two qualities are always treasured in a family unit, especially a greek one. In the act of having a trained dog in the house it would set a clear example of obedience to the children. Additionally, it is crucial that the dog be trained as it is the only external source for the children, besides Christina, and an untrained dog would give the children the wrong ideas. 

Overall, after the initial confusion subsided, Dogtooth was an amazing film to immerse my mind in. It proved to me how important education is and more specifically how powerful the education we receive is. We are what we know and it's scary how influenced we are by that. And more than that, the film really involves so many different themes. What's captivating about the film is the fact that nothing is spelled out for the audience which allows for thought, something that a lot of movies nowadays do not call the need for. So if you're ever interested in watching something that completely and utterly confuses you and simultaneously amazes you this film is the optimal choice. I encourage you to watch this movie and formulate your own opinions and theories behind each seemingly random moment in the movie, but I must warn you that this film is not for the fainthearted. If loveless, mechanical sex scenes, blatant nudity and blood are not in your comfort zone watch with caution. If not, proceed and bewilder your mind. It will be an extravagant experience. 

The Verdict: 9/10

- the godmotherr