MIFF NOTES: White God (2014, Dir. Kornél Mundruczó)

Hagen, a beautiful, placid ginger cross-breed, gets dumped on the streets of Budapest when his young owner is forced to stay with her father whilst her mother is in Australia for a conference.

Part family drama, part Milo and Otis on crack, Kornél Mundruczó's White God (Fehér listen) is a clumsily half hearted invocation of the treatment of [insert downtrodden group here] in Western society. Allegory is a fine thing, just not in this instance. When it comes to comment, White God doesn't commit beyond the general concept that powerful people will eventually be confronted by those they beat down; when it comes to drama, Mundruczó's efforts amount to overlaying brow beating music on images of dogs padding around the streets.

Heavy drumming does not transform a licking dog into a slathering monster. All a bit laughable really. The disconnect could have worked effectively had Mundruczó not also wanted to have his canines ripping out their owners' tracheas in the film's next scene. Not very well executed.

More than a festival punters walked out labelling Mundruczó's film "Dawn of the Planet of the Dogs" and it shares some of that film's stirring imagery, but not enough.

★★☆

Trailer (Hungarian):

Disclaimer: Due to excessive work and excessive film going, MIFF posts are going to be pretty sketchy this year. I'll come back to some of the better ones and write them up proper-like if the mood takes.