Dogtooth

What a good film and I’m genuinely glad I could share my thoughts on it. So dogtooth deals with an extreme form of parental control where they believe they are keeping their children safe by isolating them from the outside world, but what they are really doing is shaping reality itself for them and still control is never permanent. Just like the dog they try to train to be disciplined and obedient; rebellion is bound to happen sooner or later. we are all born naked and free and no matter how much you try to control someone and limit what they see or decide how they live it; it can only cause damage for so long. I kept wondering how long the same empty performances could be repeated, especially in front of children because even in isolation curiosity doesn’t disappear. No matter how small their world is they will always take what little they’re given and turn it into something new and create from it something new. Superficially, we can see some pros like they are good at science and math and even taught practical things like cpr but none of that really replaces what’s missing: LOVE AND TRUST. The things that hold a family together. And they are replaced by authority and obedience that they both slowly become more important than understanding. And i think what’s most unsettling is how detached the children become from empathy?? Like they hurt each other without remorse and not out of malice but because empathy was never part of their upbringing. So they don’t even seem aware of how cruel they’ve become because violence is normalized and it’s a sign for discipline and emotions are ignored so compassion has no place to develop. The eldest daughter is the first one who seems to sense that something isn’t right. It feels like she’s the only one who slowly becomes aware of the cracks in her world and we can see through the films she secretly gets from christina she got exposed to a completely different reality. So she starts repeating lines and reenacting scenes and even she creates her own dialogue “Do that again, bitch, and I’ll rip your guts out. I swear on my daughter’s life that you and your clan won’t last long in this neighborhood” when she want to show discomfort after having sex with her brother and it doesn’t feel like simple imitation but It feels like the first time she’s trying to speak for herself. And that’s where awareness and rebellion begin and control starts to collapse.