Jean-Luc Godard, whose talks about cinema are no less interesting than his films, once said that he had been dreaming about a movie, in which the proletariat would at first rebel against the capitalists, then women would rise against men, and further children would defy adults, and animals would renounce humans.
Recently I had a chance to see a picture which partly implemented this incredible idea: White God (2014).
The story by Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo is, at first glance, a simple one: Lili, a 13-year-old pupil at a musical school and her dog, who had been thrown away into the street. And now she is looking for Hagen, her dog, and Hagen is looking for her. Looks like another heartbreaking story, the new White Bim, Black Ear, which once used to bring tears to millions of Soviet children.
However, had Mundruczo only told a sentimental story of a dog destroyed by cruel people, White God would have not become a festival sensation. In fact, the film has already collected many prizes, among them is the Prize Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Festival.
The fact is that Hagen not only survives despite all the hardships. He raises a rebellion among the likes of him, homeless dogs, who break free from a horrible institution, in which all of them were to be put to sleep.
The pack – or better to say the squad – of insurgents, showing a level of organization unprecedented to animals, wreaks havoc in the city, killing offenders and murderers of dogs one by one; no police is able to stop them. What seems melodrama at first, turns into a horror film, but ends on a high dramatic note – literally. Lili performs a trumpet solo for not so peaceful Hagen’s soldiers, and a miracle happens: they all lie on the ground. Against them – face to face – lies Lili. And so they are (as the camera zooms to the aerial shot) opposite one another: an unneeded child and unwanted dogs. Now they are equal in dignity. It is their common victory.
Like any good movie, White God can be read in different ways. What I’m thinking is this uprising, as bizarre as it looks at the first glance. The most disadvantaged and the oppressed creatures, which we do not even consider enemies, suddenly organize against the oppressors. Actually, how does tyranny work? It divides its subjects. Socially isolated individuals who lack solidarity are much easier to manipulate with; it is easier to rob them, rape them, intimidate or incite them against those, who had been appointed as others (by the way, Hagen had a change of mind after he had been used in underground battles against other dogs).
So, when they say that people have the right to revolt – it is only half the truth. There is also a duty to revolt. The duty is to themselves, and to their children. Otherwise, the only outcome would be lying down like dogs slaughtered under the fence.
Although, of course, this is not the only meaning of Mundruczo’s film.
