By Juan Francisco Pablo
Dog (2001) was the first short film written and directed by the UK’s Andrea Arnold (Wasp, 2003). It expresses a throbbing concern for the youth of her country: Dog is the story of devastated young people who are still clinging to a few illusions. This hope makes them seek to fly, as this film suggests, perhaps to a different place, far from the hell they will never call home, to the kingdom of the British Crown’s forgotten.
It begins with a cute and flirtatious working-class teenager (Joanne Hill) getting ready to go see her boyfriend (Freddie Cunliffe), an unsympathetic junkie. To do this she has to escape from her mother, but not before seizing a few bills from her bag. Following the teenager in her walk, thanks to the camera of photographer Sean Bobbitt, she has an unexpected encounter with a stray dog. She shares a spiritual connection with the canine, as two wandering beings. However, walking immediately becomes unpleasant, since the moment the teenager sees her boyfriend, he demands the stolen money.
The director’s protectiveness towards her protagonist is evident, since the camera goes from being a mere recording tool to becoming a kind of effective sentinel in charge of following her from behind at all times. The slight swing of the hand-held camera is justified by seeming to accompany the adolescent; Arnold’s construction translates into a special relationship with the viewer as the figure of the faithful “watchdog”. But it is a deceptive double, as just as it slowly establishes empathy and affection, it reveals the greatest exasperation: being there but not being able to say, being there but not being able to touch. The camera is a mere intangible presence, reminding us that we cannot enter our screen to reach her. Arnold transforms it into a sharp, piercing blow aimed where it hurts the most; the sense of helplessness.
In the end, the harsh fate of the dog is more than a simple frivolous consequence as climatic closure; it expresses a double commentary, both of which have a bitter taste. First, it leads to an immediate reaction: when the faithful guardian dies, it only generates extreme frustration, it leads to a powerful protest, obviously controlled. The second expresses the beginning of a liberation, where the dog is unable to even bark while the girl is being violated, parallel to the silence of her rape and unable to free herself from the abusive control of her boyfriend. She awakens unwillingly from her lethargy, unable to stop him from laying the last piece of groundwork for the complete and irreversible ending. The shot that closes this short summarizes this idea: it shows some birds flying off; perhaps they fall from the sky, perhaps they are devoured. One thing is certain: they are no longer there.
Dog
(UK, 2001)
Directed by: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Joanne Hill, Freddie Cunliffe
Screenplay: Andrea Arnold
Cinematography: Sean Bobbitt
Duration: 10 minutes
Distributed by: MUBI
