'White God' A Review

White God is a Hungarian drama about Hagen a mixed-breed dog who is separated from his young owner Lili due to her father's unwillingness to pay a government imposed "mongrel" fee. Lili disconsolate over the loss of Hagen gets into a series of scrapes. Hagen abandoned, alone, and naive gets taken advantage of in various ways with increasing levels of abuse. After a long and violent journey Hagen ends up in the pound about to be euthanized. He, along with the hundred plus dogs in the pound, rise up and invade the streets attacking humans indiscriminately, reeking vengeance.

Conceptually sharp with the potential for engrossing metaphor and biting commentary the ideas in the film are almost unilaterally unrealized. There are significant deficiencies in the script predominately with the human relationships. The relationship between Lili and her father, all the humans that interact with Hagen, virtually every person in the film is unbelievable. The ugliness, petulance, misunderstanding, and miscommunication between the characters in the film has no basis in reality. This could also be an acting issue but it seems as if the performers are doing their best. The script is so clunky, the story so bloated, the emotions so unreal the wonderful idea at the heart of White God is totally neglected. The only effective element in the film is the absolutely compelling acting of the dogs and their beautifully choreographed orchestration.

Theoretically intriguing, narratively inadequate.

Don't See It.