Kynodontas (2009)

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 ... See full summary »

Director:

Giorgos Lanthimos

Writers:

Efthymis Filippou, Giorgos Lanthimos

Stars:

Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley, Aggeliki Papoulia

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 11 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Christos Stergioglou	...	Father
Michele Valley	...	Mother
Aggeliki Papoulia	...	Older Daughter
Hristos Passalis	...	Son
Mary Tsoni	...	Younger Daughter
Anna Kalaitzidou	...	Christina
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Steve Krikris	...	Colleague
Sissy Petropoulou	...	Secretary (as Athanasia Petropoulou)
Alexander Voulgaris	...	Dog trainer

Storyline

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 über-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission. The father is the only family member who can leave the manicured lawns of their self-inflicted exile, earning their keep by managing a nearby factory, while the only outsider allowed on the premises is his colleague Christina, who is paid to relieve the son of his male urges. Tired of these dutiful acts of carnality, Christina disturbs the domestic balance.

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Plot Keywords:

factory | clipping one's fingernails | erection | sleepmask | dog | 

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Taglines:

The cat is the most feared animal there is!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site (Greek) Official site [fr]

Country:

Greece

Language:

Greek

Release Date:

11 November 2009 (Greece)

Also Known As:

Dogtooth

Filming Locations:

Athens, Greece

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$6,686 (USA) (25 June 2010)

Gross:

$110,197 (USA) (18 March 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Boo Productions, Greek Film Center, Horsefly Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first film from Greece to be officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival in a decade.

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Goofs

In the bathroom scene, where the girl is trying to remove her tooth, when the girl is hitting her mouth in front of the mirror with the dumbbell, as she is laughing, blood running in her jaw, after the cut, her jaw is clear without blood.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mother: The new words of the day are: "Sea", "Highway", "Road trip" and "Shotgun".

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Connections

Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.3 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Casino Blues"
Performed by Jean Vallin
Written by Pierre Delanoë, René Denoncin & Jack Ledru

User Reviews

Very odd

I must confess that I didn't understand 'Dogtooth', a film that has been billed in some quarters as a "satire"; but I fail to see what it is supposed to be satirising. A couple raise their children in isolation from society, and feed them a diet of false facts about the world; in apparent accordance with their parents' desires, the children grow up with a highly unusual set of behaviours, morals and perceptions. The false picture painted by the parents is frankly bizarre, but their offspring have no external knowledge by which to judge it. But I never got any sense of what motivates the parents to behave themselves in such a strange manner, and they seem to live a similar, fairly joyless existence to their kids. Presumably this film is meant to be about something; but to me, it just felt like a pointless oddity.