Unnamed parents (Christos Stergioglou and Michele Valley) are so obsessed with their children that they have, over the years, created an walled environment in which they see nobody but each other and never leave their substantial rural home. There is one exception, and this is "Christina" (Anna Kalaitzidou) who is brought in from time to time as the paid sex pal of their son (Christos Passalis). Father drives to work each day whilst the remainder of the family live what can only be described as a surreal existence where even words mean different things. Did you know that a zombie was really a buttercup in disguise? Things start to get a bit out of hand, though, when "Christina" starts a friendship with their younger daughter (Mary Tsoni) and the dynamic of indoctrination and intimidation starts to unravel a little. The children (all in their late teens or older) start to question the reliability of their parental information and to become restless for new information and freedom. The parents are having none of this, though, and this leads to some drastic action from the father and some even more from their younger daughter who devises a cunning plan to break free from this silken yoke. There's something spookily controlling about the way Yorgos Lanthimos presents this story to us. It's a bit of ignorance is bliss married to you don't miss what you never had and the result is a naiveté borne of three siblings who take on blind faith a scenario that they simply can't envisage being different. The performances from Stergioglu as the sometimes quite brutal father and from Kalaitzidou, their visitor, evoke some serious feelings of discomfort and the sight on the son parading around the garden as though he were a boy fifteen years younger is distinctly disconcerting. Is it plausible? You'd like to think not.

<em>'Dogtooth'</em> is certainly a Yorgos Lanthimos film! On the whole, I found this fascinating. It gets quite disturbing in parts, as you'd expect from this director, but all in all it is very good. The plot starts out difficult to read, though does quickly become clear and well portrayed. Christos Stergioglou is a perfect fit for his role, rather intimidating and controlling. Angeliki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni and Christos Passalis bring noteworthy performances as the children, Papoulia and Tsoni particularly stand out. It's not a film that is cast reliant, but they play their part. Looking back, it is quite a slow paced and meandering movie. However, that's basically only in retrospect because whilst watching I didn't actually feel that to be the case, which is a big positive. The film is wonderfully shot too, not that I expected any less having seen Lanthimos' most recent (similarly as great) releases.