Thoughts About Dogtooth (Greece: Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009); Films We Would Like to See #7: J. Edgar (USA: Clint Eastwood, 2011); National Radio Project: Cointelpro 101

(Initiated by a response from Amy Edgell)

Dogtooth operates like a fairy tale or a parable, it is not a direct representation of reality, it is more designed to get us to reflect on social issues/problems/practices that are generally hard for us to understand because they are such part of our naturalized everyday lives.

While we could consider Dogtooth to be about "isolated" communities, we don't have to necessarily directly relate it to such an absolute environment. It should also give us pause in thinking about how we, in our mainstream social realities, attempt to isolate, manipulate, ignore and distort the realities about the world out of a fear for the results of hidden truths. In fact we could even apply it to many broader social institutions/groups/practices (religion, schools, universities, governments, sex education, corporations, official histories, etc... ) that practice what the father does in this tale. Likewise, not so different from the children in Dogtooth, what kind of stunted, illusionary, or, even dangerous, people are produced by institutions/groups/practices based on deception, ignorance and manipulation?



For instance consider this parallel film that tells the story of an important figure in American History -- why do we hide from reality (not saying this film is exposing any real truths because I haven't seen it, but it is finally after all these years raising some hidden truths about J. Edgar Hoover)



Now, how about a film about the FBI's Cointelpro program that destroyed so many lives.