White God

White God
File:White God poster.jpg Film poster
Directed by	Kornél Mundruczó
Produced by	Eszter Gyárfás Viktória Petrányi
Written by	Kornél Mundruczó Viktória Petrányi Kata Wéber
Starring	Zsófia Psotta
Music by	Asher Goldschmidt
Cinematography	Marcell Rév
Edited by	Dávid Jancsó
Production company	The Chimney Pot Film i Väst Filmpartners Hungarian National Film Fund Pola Pandora Filmproduktions Proton Cinema ZDF/Arte
Distributed by	InterCom
Release dates	23 May 2014 (2014-05-23) (Cannes) 12 June 2014 (2014-06-12) (Hungary)
Running time	121 minutes
Country	Hungary Germany Sweden
Language	Hungarian English
Budget	HUF$700 million (USD$2.5 million)
Box office	$581,904

White God (Hungarian: Fehér isten) is a 2014 Hungarian drama film directed by Kornél Mundruczó. The film premiered on 17 May 2014, as part of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

The film follows the mixed-breed dog Hagen, who moves with his 13-year old guardian Lili into the home of Lili's estranged father. Unwilling to pay a harsh "mongrel" fine imposed by the Hungarian government, Lili's father indicates that he wishes to abandon Hagen. Lili rebels against her father and brings Hagen to her music class, where he disrupts the class, to the chagrin of her music teacher. The teacher orders Lili to remove the dog from the class, and Lili removes him but defiantly she leaves too. Lili's father then abandons Hagen on the side of the road. Hagen chases their car but is unable to catch them. Hagen then is captured by a man who sells him to a dog fighter. He is treated cruelly and trained to kill. In his first fight, he kills his opponent and escapes. He is caught by animal control officers and brought to the city dog pound. Meanwhile, Lili goes to a party where she drinks alcohol and is caught by the police in possession of drugs. Her father picks her up at the police station, where he cries, she realizes that he loves her, they reconcile, and she rejoins her music class to prepare for a concert. Meanwhile, Hagen escapes from the pound after killing one of the staff. 250 other dogs follow him out of the pound into the city and start an organised uprising against their human oppressors. The dogs wreak mayhem in the city and Hagen attacks and kills several people who harmed him. The pack interrupts the concert where Lili is playing, and Lili realizes that Hagen is one of the pack. She then leaves the concert hall by bicycle to find Hagen. Determined to find Lili again, Hagen goes back to the pound, followed by the pack of dogs, and at this point we learn that Lili's father works in a supervisory role at the pound. Hagen approaches Lili, growling in a threatening manner, and her father emerges from the building with a dehairing blowtorch. Lili plays the trumpet and all the dogs lie down in the yard in a gesture of reconciliation. Lili then lies down as well and her father puts down the blowtorch and lies down beside her.

Cast

• Zsófia Psotta as Lili
• Sándor Zsótér as Dániel
• Lili Horváth as Elza
• Szabolcs Thuróczy as Old man
• Lili Monori as Bev
• Gergely Bánki as Dog-catcher
• Tamás Polgár as Dog-catcher
• Bodie and Luke as Hagen the dog

Awards and nominations

White God won the Prize Un Certain Regard at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and the Octopus d'Or at the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival for the Best International Feature Film. The dogs in the film were also awarded with the Palm Dog Award. The film was selected as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

See also

• List of submissions to the 87th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Hungarian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

External links

• White God at IMDb
• White God at Box Office Mojo
• White God at Rotten Tomatoes
• White God at Metacritic