"White God" is a Hungarian film by director named Kornel Mundruczo. It contains dogs - hundreds of dogs. The performances by the dogs, chiefly, the main dog protagonist named Hagen, are the best performances by dogs I have ever seen in any movie containing them. This obviously requires great direction. Mundruczo somehow elicits performances from the canine players that evoke tremendous empathy, identification and awe on the part of the viewer. It must have been hard to make this film. Not only do you have to find the right dogs for the roles, but you have to edit, capture, and compose each scene to make it entirely believable and something we can relate to. Maybe dogs don't have human emotions, but this film will make you believe they do thanks to the skill of the film-making and the right casting.
It is a film about an uprising of mongrel dogs. These dogs are treated poorly and band together to seek revenge against their wrongdoers. Where the film runs into problems is in its final act when the dogs begin acting cruelly. It may be against cruelty that they are acting cruelly but, at this point, we start to lose our sympathy for them and the emotional connection we felt in the beginning scenes. People get killed. So do dogs. It starts to become a little ridiculous, all the bodies piling up, and confusion as a result of a mongrel uprising.
I suppose there is some kind of social comment, a microcosm, or parallel allusion to some facet of modern-day world society. Their are themes such as the quest for freedom, nature vs. civilization, and the thin line between love and hate.
The film is problematic and has its flaws, but it is an amazing achievement in the use of dogs in cinema.
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