Whereas the mother in Bad Boy Bubby used the non-existent threat of poisonous gases to trick her son into being house-bound for much of his life, the dangers of man-eating domestic cats is the line used by the parents in Dogtooth to ensure that their three adolescent children aren't tempted to stray beyond the high fence which keeps them trapped in the family compound. Yorgos Lanthimos's 2009 winner of the Prix un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, Dogtooth, plays out its premise in a series of strikingly composed vignettes which articulate the highly unorthodox parenting methods and how it affects the children. With words taking on entirely new meanings ("telephone" refers to the salt on the dinner table, for example), and incestuous interactions based on sexual bribery (exchanging licks for treasured items), comparisons with Luis Bunuel, Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier all justifiably spring to mind.
