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X This Week maltatoday, Sunday, 8 March 2015 IN CINEMAS TODAY St James Cavalier Valletta Tel. 21 223200 Short Waves Festival Grand Prix Tour 2015 – Polish shorts global competition 18:00 Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Focus (15) 10:30, 13:45, 16:10, 18:35, 21:00 Kingsman: The Secret Service (12) 10:00, 13:00, 15:45, 18:30, 21:15 Fifty Shades of Grey (18) 10:15, 13:30, 16:00, 18:45, 21:15 Jupiter Ascending (12A) 15:55, 18:35, 21:15 Phobia (12A) 10:30, 13:50, 16:15, 18:35, 21:00 Mortdecai (12A) 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 20:50 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 The Woman in Black – Angel of Death (15) 14:15, 16:20, 18:30, 20:45, 23:00 Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (PG) 20:55, 23:05 American Sniper (12) 14:20, 18:05, 20:50, 23:35 Jupiter Ascending 3D (12A) 14:20, 18:05, 20:55, 23:35 Kingsman: The Secret Service (12) 14:25, 18:15, 21:00, 23:40 Big Hero 6 (PG) 14:05, 16:20, 18:35 The Theory of Everything (12A) 14:25, 18:10, 20:45, 23:20 Fifty Shades of Grey (18) 14:30, 16:30, 18:15, 20:15, 21:10, 23:00, 23:50 Mortdecai (12A) 14:10, 16:25, 18:45, 21:05, 23:30 Blackhat (15) 14:25, 18:05, 21:00, 23:45 Focus (15) 14:05, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15, 23:40 The Wedding Ringer (15) 14:10, 16:20, 18:30, 21:05, 23:25 White God (15) 14:30, 18:20, 20:50, 23:30 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Blackhat (15) 10:30, 13:15, 18:20, 21:05 Kingsman: The Secret Service (12) 10:40, 13:20, 15:55, 18:30, 21:10 Jupiter Ascending (12A) 10:40, 13:20, 15:55, 18:30, 21:05 Phobia (12A) 10:50, 13:30, 15:50, 18:10, 20:45 Fifty Shades of Grey (18) 10:45, 13:20, 15:55, 18:30, 21:05 The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (12) 11:00, 15:55, 18:10, 20:50 Focus (15) 11:00, 13:45, 16:05, 18:25, 21:00 Big Hero 6 (PG) 13:30, 16:00 Dogs trigger our emotional re- sponses like nothing else. Animals in general, really: just recall the sheer vitriol unleashed on the Mosta 'cat killer' by the public lynch mob and, further back, the outpouring of pity and compas- sion during the tragic case of the long-suffering canine 'Star'. The film industry has of course capitalised on the emotional hold animals – particularly domestic animals like dogs – have over our collective psyche. Think of the countless talking animals that populate lucrative animation features each year, as well as the heartstring-tugging live action films about loyal pets and their – usually pre-teen – charges having to undergo some sort of dangerous quest. But these films tend to exist in the maudlin sphere of 'all ages' cinema, where they scarcely – if ever – tackle weighty or challeng- ing subject matter, much less sub- ject the viewer or its protagonists (human or otherwise) to truly harrowing feats. This is partly be- cause our hard-wired soft spot for animals on screen might not be able to take it: they're effectively at our mercy, so any cruelty that comes their way would be doubly hard to take. So it's interesting and heartening to see that Hungarian direc- tor Kornél Mundruczó pulls no punches in his quirky and tense high-concept drama White God – winner of the prestigious Un Certain Regard prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival. When young Lili (Zsófia Psotta) is forced to give up her beloved dog Hagen because its mixed pedigree is deemed newly illegal by the Hungarian state, she and the dog begin to gravitate back towards each other. But Hagen's journey takes a revolutionary turn, after he rallies together all the other rejected and downtrod- den mutts of the country, to give their 'masters' a taste of their own medicine. First things first: if the golden rule of drama is to never work with animals or children, this film breaks it with vengeance. Full credit goes to head trainer Teresa Miller for commandeering not just one dog, but an entire f lotilla of them, without any help from the CGI department. The hard work has certainly paid off, as the dogs move seamlessly and dynamically, the choreography never devolving into cartoony contortions or slapstick. But Mundruczó's handling of the tone is to be commended across the board, especially given how the film switches from sentimen- tal – and painful – fable about a lonely girl and her wandering dog, to a revenge thriller with traces of Hitchcock's The Birds. Perhaps a mainstream American director, working off a Disneyfied brief, would have cut down on the harrowing ordeal both Hagen and some of his canine compatriots face, while giving the diminutive Lili a more involved romantic sub plot (a burgeoning relationship with a fellow music student is sug- gested, but never really forced to blossom). Instead we get a variant of the Hollywood blockbuster that uses dogs instead of CGI aliens to wow its spectators, and which doesn't shy away from causing grief to its animal-loving audience in its pursuit to tell a story that cuts to the quick. But as both the film's title – an allusion to 1982 race-relations allegory White Dog – and its introductory scene suggests, this isn't done in the spirit of sadism. Rather, the film functions as both a thrilling tale of hardship bested and revenge had, while also stand- ing as an inspired allegory for our (mis)treatment of the cultural oth- er. Opening in a slaughterhouse where Lili's father works, we see a cow being skinned and disembow- elled – a graphic act made all the more harrowing by its industrial, and fully sanctioned, efficiency. The message is clear: our sup- posed dominance of the animal kingdomk stands on ethically brittle foundations. Similarly, the bureaucratic edg- ing out of mixed breed dogs is a hardly subtle, but nonetheless effective mirror image of contem- porary Europe, where far-right parties with little sympathy for 'outsiders' are elbowing their way into the political mainstream. But this is a film that can be savoured beyond any links to the outside world – its own internal narrative engine is fierce, bold and endowed with the focused drive of a folk tale. It seems apt that a final deus ex machina – prefigured in a thrilling pre-credits sequence – recalls the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Great storytelling, and proof that European cinema is not all dour. White God will be showing at Eden Cinemas until March 17 By Teodor Reljic The revolution will be four-legged ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ MAN'S BEST FRIEND ★ ★ ★ ★ PEDIGREE CHUM ★ ★ ★ DOGGED ★ ★ ALL BARK, NO BITE ★ GONE TO THE DOGS WHITE GOD ★ ★ ★ ★ FILM www.gourmettoday.recipes Girl and her dog: Zsófia Psotta risks all to get her dog Hagen back in this award-winning Hungarian drama