Around the World: Hungary

Ever thought it was possible to see from a dog's point of view without animation or humans doing the voices in tacky live action films? Well it is possible and it is beautiful as well as bleak and heartbreaking. The curiously named White God is superb.

I remember seeing reviews about White God when it was first released, it was screened at Cannes in 2014 and was nominated as Hungary's choice for Best Foreign Language Film but wasn't shortlisted, sadly. It could easily been a film that was over looked as the story seems familiar but there is something special about this film.

Hagan is a mutt and loved by his own teenage owner Lili. When Lili is forced to stay with her father while her mother is out of the country, the estranged family don't see eye to eye. Her father doesn't like dogs and refuses to pay a harsh "mongrel" fine imposed by the Hungarian government. After he a Lili fight, he abandons Hagan on the side of the road. The story follows both Lili who searches the streets at night for her beloved dog while trying to mend her relationship with her father and keep up with the youth orchestra she is part of. Hagan has a very different journey. He lives on the streets, eating scraps of food where he can, avoiding the dog catchers and looking out for his owner. He passes through various people's hands eventually ending up being brutally trained for fighting. But instead of a happy reunion with Lili, Hagan, along with 250 other dogs who had been abandoned, takes to the streets, attacking, killing anyone in their way. They hold the streets hostage, but Lili is determined to find her Hagan again.

So many adorable dogs but terrifying when running in a pack. The ending scenes are truely marvelous, the dogs are as one, or as a characters describes, an army. The brutallity that Hagan and the other dogs suffer is heartbreaking, especially as they have been left aside by owners who didn't care enough about them. Their revenge is, in a way, justified but the violence against them is visited ten fold back on the people.

Although the film begins like a story we've heard before, you don't expect the outcome at all. The image of the quiet streets and just the sound of dogs in the distance is wonderfully constricted. But the last scene in the film, of the pack surrounding Lili is beautiful. Even though there is no real resolution, there is hope and that is sometimes better than a clear cut 'happy ending'.

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