The Hungarian film Fehér Isten (White God) takes the typical human/dog love story — think Lassie or Homeward Bound — and gives it a dark twist, as you can see from the trailer above. The twist? The homesick dog joins his fellow mutts in an uprising against their human captors.
However, if you’re familiar with the work of the film’s director, 39-year-old Hungarian Kornél Mundruczó, then the trailer won’t seem so weird. Well, it will seem weird (it is about dogs banding together to overthrow their human oppressors, after all), but you’ll at least know to expect the weirdness. Mundruczó is the guy behind the Joan of Arc goes to the hospital opera, and the movie where Frankenstein’s monster is a 17 year-old serial killer. Planet of the Dogs seems to be the next logical step.
But while the aforementioned films received some negative criticism, White God has gotten good buzz in advance of its March 27 release. Variety hailed it as “emotionally rousing” and “technically masterful.” It also won the Un Certain Regard prize this year at Cannes, where it had its premiere.
Here’s how Variety’s Guy Lodge describes the film’s plot:
The words "release the hounds" take on vibrant new meaning in "White God," a thrillingly strange update of the "Lassie Come Home" formula in which one lost mutt's incredible journey to sanctuary evolves into a full-scale man-vs.-beast revolution. The sixth and best feature to date from distinctive Hungarian stylist Kornel Mundruczo, "White God" initially looks to be a sizable departure from his previous work, with its appealingly naive adventure narrative, until the story's mythic proportions, not to mention its visceral violence, reveal themselves.
