DOGTOOTH (2010) (***1/2)

This Oscar-nominated foreign language film from Greece is a tale of home schooling to the extreme. I felt like I was watching a Todd Solondz film crossed with Lars von Trier. I'm surprised that the Academy recognized something so odd and uncompromising. When it's all said and done, you know one thing for sure — you've never seen anything quite like it before.

With the existential touch, none of the central family is given names. A father (Christos Stergioglou, HARD GOODBYES: MY FATHER) and mother (Michele Valley, ALEXANDRIA) live in complete isolation from the outside world with their three grown children. The father leaves their house, which is cordoned off by a tall wall, in his car to go to work at his manufacturing business each day. He brings home a female security guard named Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou) to fulfill the sexual needs of his son (Hristos Passalis, BLACK FIELD). The systematic way they go about it is like he's doing a chore. I guess that's why he has the most stickers on his headboard, rewards from father for a job well done. The older sister (Aggeliki Papoulia, ALEXANDRIA) is the most rebellious of the three and is violently reprimanded for it. The younger sister (Mary Tsoni, EVIL) follows her older siblings lead and comes up with new games for passing the time, like putting their fingers under the hot tap and the last one to pull away wins.

Why the parents have decided to psychologically warp their children is unexplained. The father is the aggressor and his wife is his frightened accomplice. The way they mess with the minds of their children doesn't have a method, seeming to be made up on the fly. When words come up that might elicit uncomfortable questions about the world, a wrong definition is given. A zombie is a yellow flower and the sea is the armchair in the living room. They are led to believe that they have other unruly siblings and that new siblings could be born at any time to take away the few possessions the three have. They are told that ferocious cats roam the landscape just outside the wall. And I'm not talking a Bengal tiger here, but little Mittens. When they ask about going out into the world, they are told they will be old enough when their "dogtooth" falls out.

The children are naïve and childlike despite being in the mid-20s easily. They play and fight like they're in elementary school. The film begins with them listening to an audio recording their father made of a language lesson. They're still learning what their father wants them to learn. Their entertainment ranges from playing made-up games together, swimming in their pool, watching home videos, playing guitar and dancing. All of it is very awkward, because they unenlightened adolescents in adult bodies.

This is a reactionary film. What I mean by that is there is no real plot driving it forward, but moves along as we watch the characters react to new dilemmas and stimuli. The introduction of Christina adds the first person into the house that isn't a part of the ruse. She introduces the children to the outside world in direct and indirect ways. Her influence is the beginning of the unraveling of what the father has built.

Director Giorgos Lanthimos (MY BEST FRIEND) and cinematographer Thimios Bakatakis shoot the film as if it where family snapshots. The images are static and often characters are cut off in the shot. It creates both a nostalgic and unsettling feel. That unsettling feel only grows with Lanthimos' matter-of-fact approach toward the often shocking material. Quiet and sometimes goofy scenes are punctuated by flashes of violence or uncomfortable sexuality that include incest. Sometimes one has to laugh at the proceedings because it's just too strange.

After the enigmatic last shot cuts to the credits, one wonders, "What did I just see?" If there is a larger message it would be that total authoritative control never works and that parents have a great responsibility in forming their children's personalities. If it is commenting on some larger socio-political issues in Greece, I am unaware of them and would wonder what crazy stuff is happening in Greece if there is. So what it is saying about those issues on a grander scale? It is up in the air. The film works more as a precise psychological character study. In this bizarre scenario, this is how these characters react. I was captivated. Lanthimos has made a world so truly unique. Film allows us to visit unique worlds. I'm glad I only have to visit this place via the cinema. Zombies in the real world are the characters in this film.