The Poodle Trainer

can't say I'm much of an animal lover and much prefer human beings despite the inherent flaws of the human race . I've been somewhat suspicious of animal lovers , in that their love of animals is matched by their hatred of humans . The bigger the animal lover the bigger their misanthropic towards their fellow humans . If I'm asked what's my favourite animal is I have no hesitation in saying cats . Apparently all the world's most infamous dictators hated cats . Mussolini hated cats , as did Stalin as did Hitler who was a great lover of dogs . The thinking behind this is that you can't train a cat where as you can train a dog . That tells you something about both dog lovers and dictators

Knowing this I was intrigued about Vance Malone's short documentary on Irina Markova a woman who trains poodles in one of Russia's circus . She can make them do anything such as dancing a conga and we see the dogs doing their thing . Being only seven minutes long it's a documentary far too short for its own good . I wanted to know a lot more about Irina . What's her motives ? Was it because she spent her formative years living under a Marxist regime she felt great empathy with a species that can be easily conditioned ? She mentions unhappiness in her life but with the exception of loosing a dog in her youth much of her life remains unexplained and she remains an enigmatic unexplored figure . Some people might smile as the poodles are put through their show but I can imagine hard core dog lovers jumping on the outrage bus screaming that this show is cruel and is of the same moral equivalent as the gas chambers of Hitler's Nazi regime . The more people love dogs the more they hate humans

Irina Markova's life and passion is the training of poodles to perform during her show in the circus, with them performing various routines and stunts while in costumes. This film spends a little time with her and sees her performances while learning more about her life. I read that the director of this short film met Irina while working on another idea but decided to follow her instead. I am pretty sure Vince Malone does not speak Russian either because I also read that this film was made in under a week but most of it was without a translator – which must have been a challenge given that for 99% of the film Irina is speaking Russian.

If this was a problem it doesn't show in the film (although I am curious how he edited down footage – did he have to translate everything he shot to find what was good?). The discussions with Irina are honest and determined. We get some very personal memories but not too much detail generally – just enough to understand her character a little bit. Outside of the specifics we hear of a determined woman with a passion and a love for this very odd activity. Essentially this is a quirkumentary but it never treats the subject as only a quirky one but rather lets it be and shares it with the viewer. The shots of the training and the shows are well used as a bed under and around discussions and it is good to both hear of Irina's passion and also see the skill and work paying off in the performances (which are actually really good in the clips we see).

It is a fleeting character piece and it doesn't go too deep, but it is engaging and drives itself off the character of Irina, which is warm, passionate, odd and honest. A well-chosen character for a film and Malone builds the film well around her.