previously published on Cineuropa
Despite its title, A
Dog’s Death, the first feature by Uruguayan director Matías
Ganz, is by no means a movie about dogs or a particularly
tragic one, but rather a socially aware satire and a smart
deconstruction of the petit-bourgeois lifestyle through a multi-genre
tale encompassing comedy, drama and slow-burning thriller. The film
has just world-premiered in Black Nights' First Feature Competition.
The opening shots of
dogs running and playing in a field, set to calm, classical music,
might initially lead the viewer in the wrong direction, as they
embody the idyll and harmony that our central elderly couple, Mario
(Guillermo Arengo, glimpsed in 7th Floor)
and Sylvia (Pelusa Vidal, a newcomer to the screen
after a fruitful career in theatre), are destined never to achieve.
Sylvia is retired, so she spends most of her time in the house,
constantly fearing that the housekeeper Guadalupe (Ruth
Sandoval) is going to rip her off or that the beggars will
keep returning to her doorstep. Mario, on the other hand, is an
absent-minded vet who manages to botch one of his last routine
operations on the titular dog. Mario tries to cover up this
professional mistake by swiftly suggesting the option of cremation to
the hound’s distressed owner (Argentinian actress-filmmaker Ana
Katz), which she accepts at first, but then she proceeds to
change her mind, and this becomes a driving force for the angry-mob
protests that begin both on Facebook and outside Mario's clinic.
However, incidents
stemming from simple mistakes and pure bad luck rarely come in
isolation. Mario and Sylvia's suburban Montevideo home gets robbed
and ransacked while they are on a night out, spending time with their
daughter Veronica (Soledad Gilmet) and her family –
her husband Juan (Lalo Rotavería) and son Felipe.
Afraid for their future, the elderly couple temporarily moves into
one of the young family's spare rooms, but the paranoia initially
felt by Sylvia and embraced by Mario runs riot, not just driving a
wedge between the generations, but also encouraging the pair to
consider crazy conspiracy theories about recent events, spiralling
into violence and even an accidental murder...
Director Ganz, whose
previous work experience mainly revolves around television, also
wrote the airtight script for his first feature, demonstrating great
storytelling prowess by crafting a tale that is universally
compelling for worldwide audiences, but also giving it quite a local
flavour and lacing it with a quick-witted and ironic sense of humour.
His insights about class-related paranoia and the fear of old age
approaching might not be new, exactly, but they are deftly woven into
the narrative. The director’s use of music (written by Sofía
Scheps, who also took care of the sound design) as a means
to dictate the atmosphere, especially the tension created through
short bursts of high-pitched flutes, is also one of the highlights of
the film, while the camerawork by Miguel Hontou and
Damián Vicente paints a realistic, non-touristic
portrait of Montevideo.
The real heroes here,
though, are the actors. Both Arengo and Vidal have a complex task to
take on, and both of their characters could easily have ended up as
cartoonish sketches. Luckily, their instincts and control are
top-notch, which makes the absent-minded Mario and paranoia-driven
Sylvia strong and memorable characters, and as a result, the two of
them really carry A Dog's Death on their shoulders.
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