Elephant Eye Locks Up Kim Chapiron’s ‘Dog Pound’

Elephant Eye Films – the distributor who grabbed the rights to The Maid (their sole release in 2009) and turned in a crazy profit of over half a million dollars at the specialty box office, will make the same concentrated effort with French filmmaker Kim Chapiron‘s Dog Pound – think Audiard’s A Prophet but with teens. 

Inspired by Alan Clarke’s BBC telepic “Scum”, Dog Pound follows three young inmates who toughen up in a juvenile correctional facility located in Montana. Davis, 16 years old: possession of narcotics with intent to resell. Angel, 15 years old: assault and autotheft. Butch, 17 years old: assault on a correctional officer. The same sentence: Enola Vale youth correctional facility. On arriving at the correctional facility they have to pick a side: victim or executioner.

Our own Melissa Silvestri covered the film at Tribeca and said “Dog Pound works because the dialogue is genuine, and the feeling of being cooped up and wanting to fight back is palpable for anybody. It ranks amongst Kids and Thirteen as portrayals of adolescence within a sick and messed-up society, and the audience should brace themselves for a intense powerhouse of a picture.”