Dogtooth

This is my 3rd rewatch I believe This is, in my opinion, one of the best and most important films ever made. First of all, of course it’s very darkly comedic, surreal and weird af in classic Lanthimos fashion. I interpret it as being about brainwashing, indoctrination and conditioning, be it either societal conditioning and how we basically believe everything we’re taught but also when taken more literally, it’s an extreme depiction of growing up in a sheltered and extremely controlling environment. You believe everything you’re told, even the things that seem obviously ridiculous to an outside observer. And most importantly, even when you finally WANT to break free, you still believe the insane things you were conditioned to (the oldest sister literally smashing and taking out her dogtooth when she could just…not do that). And in the end, we don’t see if she actually gets out of the trunk or not. But we do see that she probably hesitates. Because breaking free means stepping into the unknown that you’ve been conditioned and brainwashed your whole life to fear. There’s also a very clear function of the patriarchy inside the family, with the father being the only one going outside and also the parents having someone to “fulfil the sexual needs” of the male child. Whereas, we see one of the sisters get basically bribed with unimportant random items by Christina in exchange for something sexual, like a child would, because she has no clue what’s happening. I believe this is a movie for everyone because we all get brainwashed by society and some realize it and some don’t to various extents but it’s also a movie that anyone raised in an abusive controlling environment can appreciate. Art is meant to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed kinda thing.