«.dog» is the first movie by Cypriot filmmaker Yianna Americanou. She was trained as film director in the United Kingdom and United States, and perhaps that partially explains the rather epidermic treatment of her characters and the situations they get involved in, and the excessive use of extradiegetic music, being these two traits frequently found in mainstream films produced in both countries, with detrimental effects.
The story centers around the encounter of an ex-con with his young son, who is close to achieving emancipation, when he leaves the State "hostel for orphans" where he lives. Dimitris or D --as many call him-- grew up without his father, but has done rather well, and befriended another young man in the hostel, who serves as alternate family. But when the father is out of jail, his presence begins to erode D's future perspectives. The drama that unfolds is predictable, its vicissitudes are formulaic, it reaches an unconvincing happy ending, and the music score and songs do not help much.
However, there is energy and sincerity in the performance of young actor Dimitris Kitsos as D, the color cinematography is attractive and Americanou uses very good locations that visually help the movie a lot. Not a bad start but it could have benefited from a better screenplay.
Plot summary
Young Dimitris, on the verge of manhood yet very much a child, has romanticized his imprisoned father to mythic proportions. When he gets released after ten years, Dimitris cannot wait to finally know him and make up for lost time. But when his father reveals his true nature, Dimitris must face a great dilemma: will his need of belonging prevail over his sense of justice?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
August 26, 2023 at 10:00 AM
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Movie Reviews
D and the Ex-Con
A very good one!
The movie shows the relationship between a father, recently released from prison, and his teenage son, who lived in a Home for orphans and abandoned children.
The son (Dimitris) was doing alright before his father (Andreas) entered his life again. He had friends who loved him, a job and a boss who wanted to "adopt" him.
Dimitris, however, wanted to be with his father. Andreas did not quit from his old bad habits and soon Dimitris realised his abusive behaviour.
The movie was shot in a documentary style and I particularly liked the night scenes. Both actors of the main characters are excellent and every other character had a purpose for the plot. The stronger scene of the movie, in my opinion, was at the end of the movie, where father and son were fighting like dogs. It was a brief scene, yet very strong.
I would like to see more of the emotional need of Dimitris from his father. Dialogues with a lot of emotion, confrontation, emotional outbursts etc. Nevertheless, it's a good movie, enjoy!
BAD
There are things that do not make sense and subplots that lead nowhere. The whole thing is unrealistic, incoherent and pretentious. The movie was promoted as a "Cypriot film" but Amerikanou, apparently does not like the cypriot dialect which is insulting to the cypriot people. The characters do not even speak in the local dialect. I hope the filmmaker supports her country and its dialect in her next film.