White God (2014)

> The day when the dogs stopped wagging their tails.

This movie was a tricky one, because everyone cannot understand and everyone cannot enjoy it. In this modern world, the computer graphics are easily available to illude the audience, so who would still use the silly old practical trickery in a film making. Must have been the hard work to manage plenty of the dogs during the shooting. But I believe there are hardly any major CGI works other than the bluescreen works. If you get the movie, then that's fine, if not, you may get some ideas through this review. Before proceeding I just want to alert the readers the review might contain some spoilers which is not measured.

The Hungary's entry for the last concluded Oscars. The movie talks about a girl Lili in her early teenage, aspiring musician and her mixed breed dog name Hagen. When a circumstance forces them apart, the individual life journey begins for both of them. The girl becomes rebellious towards her father and the dog towards the human society like a piece of iron bar pulled away from the magnet. Will they unite again? Is the rest of the story with the breathtaking second half.

This dark fantasy (like dark comedy) film was like the old days, like the black and white beast or the monster films similar to 'King Kong' and others, where animals can think like humans, execute like humans, but still not a fairytale nor the science fiction. Because sci-fi applies theoretical probabilities, animal psychology et cetera, while fairytale is a magic. It will come between sci-fi and fantasy, most likely an adult version of the fantasy tale. Comparing it with 'Birds' is one hundred per cent not agreeable, because unlike the dogs, the birds' behaviours were unknown. But 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes' was the closest one, and you can compare Caesar with Hagen.

It does not end there, I believe you all have seen the last year's genuinely written screenplay 'Lucy'. You may wonder why this comparison, because this film is about dogs, yet the title strangely pronounced as 'God'. What I understood was that Hagen was drugged with cocaine (white powder) like the blue powder in the other film and he started to change his personality. So that explains the coke was the 'White God' and the rest follows the story of revenge, leadership and ultimately the revolution.

> "It's hard to lose someone you love.
> Things don't work out the way we imagined."

Off the record: Most of us know that the dogs are derived from the wolves. Yet they have lost the freedom compared to a few centuries ago who walked freely on the human streets. Every dog must have a master/owner or it will be put to sleep rather keeping and feeding them forever in the dog pound. So I think dogs are suffering more than the apes and they deserved the revolution (according to this film).

Animal abuse was highlighted in the movie. The story was descended from there and what happens if they takeover us is the movie's view. One of the weirdest movie of the year, but different and good. If you ever had a dog, you will know they were adorable, even in the violent scenes. Because they were just playing, but that does not the case for children and those who never been with dogs. Every shot that had dogs were cleverly achieved, the outcome was very convincing.

I have heard the crew used two brothers for the Hagen role. They both were awesome, equals to any main human characters from the movie. Another 250 mixed-breed stray dogs were participated in the film making and later most of them were adopted. Believe me the movie was a good one, but some people had a hard time accepting the oddity of the theme. It won a couple of awards at Cannes film festival, including one for the Hagen's character performance.

The Hungarian film industry to make into the international level, they should take the cue from this success and must bring the sequel with a broader cast. Nowadays, experimental movies like this are welcomed by the moviegoers around the globe. Definitely, an interesting story with the striking scenes and dialogues would make everyone turn toward the eastern Europe. Obviously I recommend this one, but never expect the style of Hollywood, it had approached its own way to give a pleasing movie.

8/10

White God opens with a teenage girl pedalling alone through an emptied-out Budapest while a couple of hundred stray dogs come pouring around the corner behind her, and the film refuses to tell you whether to feel thrilled or terrified. That refusal is the whole point. Kornel Mundruczo takes a small everyday cruelty, a father dumping his daughter's mixed-breed dog Hagen on the roadside to dodge a tax on mongrels, and grows it into a full revolt. Hagen passes through every layer of human failure: the street, the pound, a dogfighting pit, a trainer who beats the gentleness out of him on purpose. By the time he leads the pack back into the city to settle scores, you understand the rage even while you flinch from it.

What makes it land is that almost none of this is computer trickery. Roughly 250 real shelter dogs were trained for the shoot, and the two dogs who shared the role of Hagen, Luke and Body, were adopted after filming wrapped. Knowing that quietly rewires how you watch the stampede down the boulevard. These are not pixels, they are animals carrying a story most films would hand to a stunt team and a render farm.

It is not a comfortable watch and it should not be. The fighting scenes are genuinely hard, and the final standoff stays deliberately unresolved. But as a parable about who a society throws away, and what happens when the thrown-away organise, very few animal films aim this high or earn the swing. Read our full take at https://dogwithblog.in/movie-review-white-god/