C+ | A teenage girl is separated from her beloved dog. Directed by Kornel Mundruzco Initial Review by Jon Kissel |
There's a French movie I recently watched called Au Hasard Balthazar. Directed by the renowned Robert Bresson, it's a tribute to good old Christian suffering, as a young woman and her donkey nobly withstand abuse dealt to them by people unworthy of their innate goodness. That movie's also about the choice by the powerful to do harm to the powerless, plus the danger of giving power away in good faith, both themes that are resonant in White God as well. Besides both movies having excellent animal acting, that's where the comparison ends. Spoiler, but the donkey never loses control and bites someone's throat out. Kornel Mondruczo's White God is split between its two leads. One, an adolescent girl played by Zsofia Psotta, rebels against being treated like a child, while the other, a dog played doubly by Bodie and Luke, rebels against being treated like an animal. There's a coherent twinning between the two, and Mondruczo's treats both subjects with respect.
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