Last year it was Steve McQueen's Hunger that claimed the top prize in Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard section (where the obscure, bizarre, avant-garde films from the auteurs around the world get a proper showcase). This year, it is an atypical film from Greece that tied critics up in knots.
With his jury prize win, Dogtooth and the film's helmer Yorgos Lanthimos have officially set themselves up for a prosperous apres Cannes film festival life. Lanthimos's debut film Kinetta preemed at TIFF in 2005 and in Berlin the following year, and with TIFF's Piers Handling being one of the jury member's for the Un Certain Regard section this year, you can betcha your bottom dollar that his film will wind up at Toronto.
The way I break it down was as such: "the drama features a mentally disturbed set of parents who've basically grounded their children permanently - the children are actually full grown adults but have no knowledge of the outside world. On the onset, you get a sense that they are close to mental retardation, but in fact, the three are part of a reward and punishment system - they receive new objects or toys as compensation for good behavior. Sprinkled with gratuitous violence, and a frame that almost never moves, this reminds me of some auteurs from Mexico."
Here is the trailer for the picture. We'll be keeping tabs on this picture for the months to come.
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