Dogtooth (2009)

basics...
A Greek drama about a very strange family - three unnamed young adults are kept confined to their home and grounds by their mother and father - motives unknown - when the idyllic, safe life they live together becomes threatened by internal and external forces.

brilliant...

This movie is weird. It's a good weird though. Slow moving and low key, the movie works because the actors are so believable and the slowly emerging realisation of their hermetically sealed lives is so creepily and effectively defined. The three children are schooled by their parents, who deceive them in many ways in order to protect them from the outside world. When airplanes fly overhead one of the parents will occasionally throw a toy plane into the garden so that the kids think they are really small objects, not far away. There is no TV, no books, nothing to indicate to the children that life goes on beyond their world. The only contact with the outside is their father's female employee who is brought around periodically to have sex with the male child in order to curb his sexual impulse. The older of the two sisters becomes violent and determined to see what's on the other side of the hedge, leading to some bloody scenes that were difficult to watch. Dogtooth's plot is minimal, but director Yorgos Lanthimos creates a compelling, disturbing family drama that it is difficult to shift from my head.

but...
It is a little too obtuse at times, and I don't see myself wanting to rewatch Dogtooth again soon. I quite liked the lack of explanation or motivation of some of the characters, but others would probably want more resolution. The open ending would probably frustrate some viewers too. I found it rather apt.

briefly...
Atmospheric and chilling, Dogtooth won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it worked for me.