RIGA IFF: Atklāšanas vakars: Dieva suns

Dog of God
Dieva suns
LV
2025, 96’, lv
Age 16+

 

What are the days like in a Livonian village over 300 years ago – when it's forever raining, the haze of a stiff drink lingers on the church pew, and the air is thick with a paranoia of witchcraft? In Kaltenbrunn the trodden path has always been between the church and the tavern, and drinking fellows would understand if over a raunchier weekend you mistake the rear end of a cat for a girl’s lips. But the routine bustle grinds to a halt when suspicions of sorcery gather like dark, meaty clouds as the pastor, quivering and resolute, accuses the tavern maid of practising magic. The villagers’ lives are made no easier by the witch trial, nor the everlasting drizzle, nor by having a grey-haired, self-declared werewolf known as the dog of God in their midst. The mystery thread has been unravelled, the wolf’s tail is wagging…

 

A potato western with gothic elements that shakes up not only the preconceptions and knowledge of the history of Latvia, but also the whole range of Latvian animated film. Employing rotoscope animation, this sharp-witted piece by the Ābele brothers cradles a visual style explosion – the comic-book aesthetic of artist Harijs Grundmanis stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, if they ever took an interest in a village beset by rain and superstition and the most infamous werewolf trial in Northern Europe, known as the case of Thiess of Kaltenbrun. Departing from canonical werewolf portrayals, the Ābeles are more interested in the shamanic tradition and pre-literary wolf-beings – tricksters and healers. Premiered at Tribeca Festival in the Escape from Tribeca section, the film is a boldly ironic and defiantly daring handshake between anime, paganism and the Livonian chronicle – unlike anything in Baltic film so far.