Dogtooth

4.17
    Dogtooth
    2009

    Synopsis

    Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence 'the sea' refers to a large armchair and 'zombies' are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the uber-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission.

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    Cast

    • Christos StergioglouFather
    • Michele ValleyMother
    • Hristos PassalisSon
    • Angeliki PapouliaOlder Daughter
    • Mary TsoniYounger Daughter
    • Anna KalaitzidouChristina
    • Steve KrikrisColleague
    • Sissi PetropoulouSecretary
    • Alexander VoulgarisDog Trainer

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Time Out

      How perfectly perverse: In a summer crammed with sequels, remakes, '80s nostalgia and the frustrated sense of "What else y'got?" comes the most original nightmare in years.
    • 100

      The A.V. Club

      It's an exhilaratingly unpredictable experience, and not an easy one to shake.
    • 80

      Empire

      As harrowing as it is humorous, Giorgos Lanthimos' award-winning journey to a family's heart of darkness is unflinchingly detailed, thought-provoking fare.
    • 80

      Movieline

      A brightly lit nightmare of patriarchy run amok.
    • 75

      New York Post

      A highly original black comedy from Greece -- and one of the weirdest movies I've seen in a long time.
    • 70

      The Hollywood Reporter

      Horror and cold humor commingle in Dogtooth, a Greek import whose screenwriters approach scenario construction like misanthropic social scientists planning an experiment -- one whose result suggests that governments might want to rethink policies allowing parents to home-school their children.
    • 70

      Variety

      The Greek helmer's sophomore picture does exude a strange fascination throughout.
    • 70

      Village Voice

      Director Giorgos Lanthimos lays out the rules largely through action rather than exposition, which allows Dogtooth to play as a richly satisfying, blackly comic mystery in spite of its delayed, horror-sourced housebreak plot.

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