Ishkandar_B

Well, the word of mouth has been consistently pro "Dogtooth" so, having great expectations for the film, I could be nothing less but disappointed after watching it… "The pussy was turned off and the room fall into darkness". This quote invented by the mother could be the epitome of "Dogtooth". Distortion is systematic. Zombies are yellow flowers while young flowers turn into zombies. It's nothing but a question of definition as far as definitions do not distort the balance of this imaginary, yet somehow applied reality. Something like the boy sitting next to me in this internet café while I'm typing these words, captured in his "Mafia Wars" reality. The parents of this boy sitting next to me, are presumably not rich enough to afford to built a false and consistently deceptive world, an expensive shelter, in order to "protect" their children from the malice of reality, so they let their boy on his own… Are they more indifferent or simply more honest to themselves comparing to the "Dogtooth" parents? Well, ask Mr. Balboa, not me…And then as a sequence of what one would call "crime and punishment", "a nobody" who –unluckily- is so fond of oral sex, an "instrumentum vocale" hired by the father-master to cover some basic needs of the family, becomes the catalyst for the forced fulfillment, the broken dogtooth and the untraceable blood… Worth seeing only if you have not read all these dithyrambic reviews...

P.S. Rumor has it that "Dogtooth" could be a qualified for the "Best Foreign Film" nomination of the American Academy, but the "dead" cat was not realistic enough to help this nomination! Wouldn't you say?

Unbelievable! If you are a Tarantino-style fun you don't want to miss this film. Every scene spouts paranoid violence so coincident with the human condition! The peripety is breath taking until the last second, puzzling you about the sort of drags director and writer Wayne Kramer was using when he was working with the ...script! All the characters, the main character, his wife, the boys, the Russian step father, the pimp, the cups, the mobs are nicely integrated into the story. The opening scene is "wow" while the penultimate brought tears into my eyes and this is something that happens very, but very rarely to me! With only a few tiny flops in the story and a great cinematography that you have no alternative but to enjoy, is a film of its genre, I haven't enjoyed since the time of the "Reservoir Dogs". Thumps up!

This is the story of Giorgos, an ex-convict who has spent more than fifteen years in prison, sentenced for a crime of honor, and Strella, a transsexual call girl. The opening scene, as Giorgos kisses good-bye his cellmate, is when the viewer is prepared for macho-looking Giorgos' sexual orientations or –if you want- his upcoming "tolerance" to the fact that Strella is not a common girl. Giorgos wouldn't possibly react the way Fergus reacted in Neil Jordan's "Crying Game". As Giorgos is set free to "live his myth" in the dirty city, walking among the human and the urban garbage, one can smell the urine in the narrow mean streets, downtown Athens. Soon, as Giorgos attempts to find more about the whereabouts of his long lost son, one suspects that the film is intended to be a modern version of a Greek tragedy, except it will not be, because Strella knows better! Fortunately, "deus ex machina" will not be required. Humans ought to deal with their issues by themselves, this time. The supporting characters are never becoming grotesque despite the fact that they are queer and that Death is flirting with them throughout the film. Even Strella's impersonation of Maria Callas in its falseness has a bizarre dignity and proves to be a successful tightrope walking mainly –in my opinion- because it has nothing in common and at any time with any of the Almodόvar's transvestite characters. All in all, "Strella" is a worth seeing film and one of those every so often moments the Greek cinematography surprises pleasantly.