WHITE GOD (Kornél Mundruczó). 121 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (March 27). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Where to watch: Netflix
Torn from the life he knew and forced into a heartless, abusive underworld, a valiant hero must amass an army and fight his way back to his loved ones.
That’s a plot that’s been driving stories for millennia – most recently in narratives like Gladiator and Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes. And now it’s realized with dogs in Kornél Mundruczó’s White God.
Our hero is Hagen, a mutt who’s the best friend of young Lili (Zsófia Psotta). But mongrels aren’t welcome in Budapest, so Lili’s father (Sándor Zsótér) dumps him in the street.
While Lili searches frantically for him, Hagen is inducted into a dogfighting ring. And things will get a lot worse before they have a hope of finding one another. (The credits include an assurance that no animals were harmed in the making of the film, which I really appreciated.)
As in his 2008 drama Delta, Mundruczó has a tendency to drag out the action so you can better consider his metaphors, and White God feels at least half an hour longer than it needs to be.
But during those other 90 minutes, when the simplicity of image and clarity of performance (whether human or canine) combine, you’ll feel like you’re watching something amazing.
See the Q&A with director Mundruczó at nowtoronto.com/movies.
