Thirteen-year-old Lili fights to protect her dog Hagen. She is devastated when her father eventually sets Hagen free on the streets. Still innocently believing love can conquer any difficulty, Lili sets out to find her dog and save him.
What holds Kornél Mundruczó's scrappy film all together is its fierce and forceful political metaphor: society’s underdogs – be it ethnic minorities, the poor, the disenfranchised – if pushed too far, will bite back (in this case literally).
Who let the dogs out? This is Homeward Bound: The Incredibly Harrowing Journey, with the feelgood payoff arriving after many feel-shit sequences. Well worth it, though.
Superbly acted allegorical drama with a climax that is not only breathtakingly exciting but flawlessly handled.
Mundruczó skillfully weaves adventure, coming-of-age, prison-escape and revenge-thriller tropes into a mythic, emotional and visceral experience that poses moral questions about how people treat animals and how people treat people.
Technically impressive but gimmicky to a fault.
It's a tremendous film, an epic tale about an abandoned dog that has a grittiness, surrealistic imagination and violence you'll never find in any Disney movie.
It’s a more arresting and entertaining movie than I ever expected from this director: a captivatingly bizarre quasi-horror thriller drama.
Brilliantly directed and featuring some remarkable performances from its canine cast, its striking finale also serves as a stark warning about our own arrogant belief that we’ll always be at the top of the food chain.
Pathos, insight and political allegory light up a dark drama of feral fighting dogs in Budapest.
Director Kornel Mundruczo on his dog horror film
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Edinburgh from Friday February 27, 2015, until Thursday March 5, 2015. More info: www.filmhousecinema.com
Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow from Monday March 2, 2015, until Thursday March 5, 2015. More info: http://www.glasgowfilm.org/theatre/
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee from Friday March 6, 2015, until Thursday March 12, 2015. More info: www.dca.org.uk
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