White God (2014)

February 7, 2025 6:37 AM

[TRAILER] 13 year old Lili fights to protect her dog Hagen, and is devastated when her father sets Hagen free on the streets. Still innocently believing love can conquer any difficulty, Lili sets out to save her dog. Failing in his desperate efforts to find his beloved owner, Hagen joins a canine revolt leading a revolution against their human abusers.

Hungarian title: Fehér isten

Starring Zsófia Psotta, Sándor Zsótér, Szabolcs Thuróczy, Lili Monori, László Gálffi.

Directed by Kornél Mundruczó. Written by Kornél Mundruczó, Viktória Petrányi, Kata Wéber. Produced by Eszter Gyárfás, Viktória Petrányi. Cinematography by Marcell Rév. Edited by Dávid Jancsó. Music by Asher Goldschmidt.

87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Multiple streaming options right now. Check out streaming options in your country and on your favorite services via the film's JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (6 comments total)

I am not even sure what Mundruczó was trying to do here. I worry he may have intended this as an allegory about migrants, but that can't be right. The dogs, while treated cruelly and inhumanely, are savage and dangerous. Criminy, I hope that isn't his comparison.

Is this about cruelty to animals? Maybe about balance with animals and nature? Mundruczó's style is so loud, I am honestly not sure. He definitely thinks the dogs are terrifying and they definitely attack humans brutally, so it's not a film for animal lovers. Really, as a film starring a cute kid and dogs that features intense violence and a bleak outlook that maybe doesn't even like dogs, I am not sure who this is for, really.

I find myself comparing this to Mundruczó's episodic film Evolution, two thirds of which I really liked. The first part, an initially flatly realistic then increasingly surreal story about cleanup of a "shower" installation in a concentration camp after the war was harrowing. The next section, about a mother and a daughter having an extended argument ostensibly about documents, but really about their Jewish heritage, was showy but powerful. The third part, about a Romeo & Juliet like romance between a Hungarian-German Jewish kid and his Muslim classmate was like a stupidly ambitious Benetton ad.

It's as though Mundruczó is better at unease and open-ended questions and really shoots himself in the foot when he tries to make a clear thematic statement. I think he may also be overly in love with his own directorial skillset.

The reviews on this are mostly good, so it may just be me. But honestly, I could hardly make heads or tails of this film and most of the time watching it, I was just mad. People think the worst films are made by hacks or amateurs, but for me, the most intolerable films are those made by talented people fearlessly chasing after bad ideas.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:48 AM on February 7 [1 favorite]

I saw it because I was fooled by a random clip showing hundreds of dogs running through the empty streets of Budapest. But the film itself was a cruel and disgusting tale where all the grown ups are assholes and everybody hates the emigrants or the ‘others’.

A Dog Revenge fantasy which concludes that music is good, but dog abuse is bad? NO!
posted by growabrain at 11:04 AM on February 7

I will have to rewatch this, I found it offputting but I don't trust what I think I wanted the movie to be at the time.

"cruel and disgusting tale" honest, then?
posted by ginger.beef at 5:50 PM on February 8

There is a previously on MetaFilter for this one.

I liked this one, and I thought I had said something about it but I'm not seeing any comment of mine.

I found it powerful. Maybe I didn't have my sensitivities fully engaged, but I was thinking of it in terms of downtrodden people in general, and just the power of exclusion and brutality to turn people "bad". It's interesting how when the dogs rebel it is like a fantasy; that's a human thing to do.

And I like that the movie is not just about saving Hagen from his predicament. We wanna save all these dogs.
posted by fleacircus at 11:26 AM on February 9

I could be wrong, but I assume the title, which I don’t think helps the film, is a response to Fuller’s White Dog.

I haven’t seen either film since their releases but for me the go to comparison for White God was always “Planet of the Apes with dogs.”
posted by dobbs at 6:15 AM on February 11

It is supposed to be a reference to the Fuller film, yeah.

What he means by it, I am not clear.

But then, that last sentence describes my reaction to the entire film, so yeah.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:53 AM on February 11