«.dog» is the first movie by Cypriot filmmaker Yianna Americanou. She was trained as film director in the United Kingdom and United States, and perhaps that partially explains the rather epidermic treatment of her characters and the situations they get involved in, and the excessive use of extradiegetic music, being these two traits frequently found in mainstream films produced in both countries, with detrimental effects.
The story centers around the encounter of an ex-con with his young son, who is close to achieving emancipation, when he leaves the State "hostel for orphans" where he lives. Dimitris or D --as many call him-- grew up without his father, but has done rather well, and befriended another young man in the hostel, who serves as alternate family. But when the father is out of jail, his presence begins to erode D's future perspectives. The drama that unfolds is predictable, its vicissitudes are formulaic, it reaches an unconvincing happy ending, and the music score and songs do not help much.
However, there is energy and sincerity in the performance of young actor Dimitris Kitsos as D, the color cinematography is attractive and Americanou uses very good locations that visually help the movie a lot. Not a bad start but it could have benefited from a better screenplay.
The story centers around the encounter of an ex-con with his young son, who is close to achieving emancipation, when he leaves the State "hostel for orphans" where he lives. Dimitris or D --as many call him-- grew up without his father, but has done rather well, and befriended another young man in the hostel, who serves as alternate family. But when the father is out of jail, his presence begins to erode D's future perspectives. The drama that unfolds is predictable, its vicissitudes are formulaic, it reaches an unconvincing happy ending, and the music score and songs do not help much.
However, there is energy and sincerity in the performance of young actor Dimitris Kitsos as D, the color cinematography is attractive and Americanou uses very good locations that visually help the movie a lot. Not a bad start but it could have benefited from a better screenplay.