Director

Matteo Garrone

Italy, France | 2018 | 102 min | Italian

• Producer Paolo Del Broco ,Matteo Garone , Jean Labadie, Jeremy Thomas
• Production Company Archimede Film, Lepacte. Rai Cinema
• Screenplay Ugo Chiti, Maurizio braucci,Matteo Garone, Massimo Guadioso
• Cinematography Nicolaj Bruel
• Editing Marco Spoletin
• Sound Maricetta Lombardo
• Cast Marcello Fonte, Edoardo Pesce, Nunzia Schiano, Alida Baldari Calabria
• Contacts

  Front Row Filmed Entertainment

  nz@frontrowent.ae

About the Film

In a derelict, gloomy estate in the outskirts of Naples, Marcello runs his dog-grooming business. He leads a peaceful life; spending his free time with his beloved daughter who adores him, or playing football with the owners of the other little shops in the neighborhood. But Marcello makes two mistakes: the first is to sell drugs – in order to make the extra money he needs to go on holidays with his daughter to places that he otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford – and the second, more dangerous, is to think that the same ability he has to tame even the most fierce pitbull will work also with the brutal, unstable and aggressive Simone. The reality is quite different though; when Simone bullies the sweet Marcello into coming along on burglaries with him and Marcello eventually goes to prison in his place, the tragedy is ready to flare up.

With Dogman, Garrone goes back to the atmosphere of Gomorrah and The Embalmer, but goes further than it in explaining the toxic emotional inadequacy of gangsterism, and deeper than The Embalmer in the representation of the skewed power dynamics between the two male characters. Avoiding the too obvious tropes of the revenge movie, Garrone distills from the mixture of horror and pity, which solidifies that impossible friendship, the elements for a powerful and heartbreaking contemporary tragedy. Thanks to his impressive performance, the leading actor Marcello Fonte was awarded the Palme d’Or for Best Actor at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

Teresa Cavina