my dog killer

[jenkins]

In the dreary early hours, as the sun scatters upon the desolate Slovak countryside somewhere near the border, 18-year-old Marek trains his ferocious mutt to attack. Marek's scrappy, pale frame and hard, deadened eyes betray an impenetrably empty figure, resigned to a life of hardship and neglect. His solace is found with the local skinheads who populate the sparse region. Burdened with the responsibility to save his father's land, he seeks out the mother who abandoned him years earlier. Their turbulent meeting sparks an ominous chain of events in which bubbling ethnic tensions and inner turmoil will lead to dark consequences. Evocatively employing authentic locations, untrained actors and a sparse narrative bereft of a musical score, director Mira Fornay's contemplative camerawork and simmering approach captures a vivid sense of place and a stagnant feeling of quiet desperation that comes with no easy answers.—Landon Zakheim

Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic
Year: 2013
Director: Mira Fornay
Screenwriter: Mira Fornay

[Pubrick]

holy shit that last line by the dumb little kid is so foreboding.

i have to see this.

and a female director too! the best part is it doesn't seem to matter.. it would be a stretch to frame her gender as context for this film. i wonder how sam fuller plays into this, it would be silly to not address his movie. you know the one.

[jenkins]

i predict three replies to this movie

1. this is the most boring Nothing Is Happening movie i've ever seen and i fucking hate you for mentioning it, go back to your movie fest with this shit

2. most people watch too many hollywood movies and can't register the layers of human reality here. i had no problem and could feel the lead's interior. also, the geography of camera and place gave meaningful foundations. it's a valuable contribution to the realistic vibe of modern cinema. heydidyounotice the nonactors

3. what the fuck. can we talk about this? (this is my reply.) the majority of the narrative and cinematic walls that tend to exist as framing devices appear missing. i had to stare at the screen and wonder what was going on. then i realized something was going on already, holy shit

the movie's land is wide open. how many shots were in this movie? a tiny number. how the fuck can europe plan out such long shots with that many character and camera movements??? how much time does something like that take to put together, and how do they spend that much time and still it all feels living?

it's impressive as hell, and i'm not immediately sure of the full extent. i'd have to watch it again. i might not immediately rewatch it, because it is kind of boring. other people i know think this movie lacks a strong emotional core, but i think the amount of cinema was substantial enough that i didn't notice everything at once. i'd often notice i was staring at a guy as he walked or whatever, i was staring at him walk or whatever for like minutes, and i'd think about that instead of the movie. that's my bad, tbh. of course i noticed when dramatic things happened, and they do, but many of the pieces didn't appear in the shapes i expected and i wasn't sure when or how they were happening (i appreciate this tactic)

to let reelist and others know, no animals were harmed or tortured while making this movie, and it doesn't fakehappen either. because of the dog and its aggressiveness there are minor shades of fuller