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Capsule summary: ‘Dogtooth’
“Dogtooth”
The Cannes Film Festival is known for showing daring, dark movies. But when “Dogtooth” premiered there in 2009, even the most jaded veterans were taken aback.
Directed by Giorgos Lanthimos of Greece, “Dogtooth” deals with a husband and wife who have decided to raise their children with no contact with the outside world. They live down a street far from other homes, and a towering fence surrounds them.
The stern parents make up incredible lies to help explain the occasional glimpses of planes flying overhead and other ordinary sights.
The father, played by Christos Stergioglou, has a job in town. And when he begins to notice that his teen-age son is having sexual urges, he arranges to have one of his female co-workers come to the home regularly for intercourse.
She’s the only one from the outside world to be allowed on the grounds, and it doesn’t take long for her to decide to play sexual mischief. One scene is vaguely reminiscent of the fascist sex encounter in Lena Wertmuller’s “Seven Beauties,” although no whips are involved.
There’s a point to all of this, of course, and it will probably become clear if you’re inclined to stay till the ending. Some will inevitably choose not to do so, but that would be a shame.
It won the top award in the Cannes sidebar known as Un Certain Regard.
Screenings: 6:45 p.m. Friday, Alamo South; 5 p.m. March 19, Alamo Ritz.
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