ALL THAT IS TERRIBLE IS SOMETHING THAT NEEDS OUR LOVE

Contemporary Budapest: a law enforces a tax on mongrel dogs, resulting in the abandonment of many animals reduced to being taken to kennels.

Thirteen-year-old Lili, must spend a long time with her father, and her beloved mixed-breed dog Hagen will be abandoned on the street by the parent.

Lili will not hesitate to search for him obsessively as her dog ends up in a kennel, then exploited by a homeless man and finally trained for violent dog fights.

Hagen will hone a strong survival instinct and as in a bitter fairy tale will become the leader of a riot that will sow panic in the city of Budapest.

Meanwhile, Lili's great passion for music will continue to make her play trumpet in an orchestra that is preparing for New Year's Eve a concert on Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, which begins with a Lento Capriccio in F and flows immediately to a mesto Andante, constituting the Lassan theme with a somber, dark, formal and solemn tone that seems like a prelude to something about to happen.

It is a cautionary metaphor about the relationship between species and subalternities: white Westerners and their castes with grudges and resentments raging on the other side.

If one is convinced that God is white one perpetuates the denials of minorities and attempts at domestication. Embodied rebellion against humankind by NON-white dogs responds to the barbarity of denial and reaction. Revenge, anger and heroism seem to lurk if one does not try to put oneself in the other's shoes.

A real fairy tale, albeit too fragmented; a critical film about ruling elites; a moral and political slice of life played by 250 dogs and the incredibly talented Zsofia Psotta.

Mundruczo does not hesitate to make art that does not give up its critical stance, its attempt to affix a mirror reflecting what one does not want to see. A second-class humanity is represented by the "breed-different" dogs, those mongrels, somewhat revenants who rebel.

A fierce political critique, a strong denunciation, a merciless social satire.

Only art seems to soothe the spirits, and with music finally the silence of reflection.

20-Aug-2023 by Beatrice