Dir: Huan Gan | China 103’
This noirish black comedy is the lusciously lensed latest offering from Hu Guan and his longtime collaborator Rui Ge and stars awarded filmmaker Zia Zhangke alongside celebrated actor Eddie Peng who is strangely compelling in the main role.
It all starts with an accident in the remote steppe of north west China where a Clint Eastwood style drifter called Lang (Peng) comes home only to uncover the ghosts of his past. But this is no ordinary odyssey.
After escaping unscathed from an accident in the bus the skinny ex-prisoner fetches up in his hometown to discover the place is under threat from a rabid black dog. After joining the local dog patrol tasked with eliminating strays the two bond eventually and this is their unusual story.
Immaculately shot on the widescreen and brimming with thematic richness: civic and family duty; animal welfare, urban degeneration and so on this is a real treat with its sly humour, Pink Floyd score, visual acuity and an off beat script that takes its time and goes to unexpected places in telling an imaginative and moving story about a man and his best friend @MeredithTaylor
BLACK DOG will have its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 15-21, 2024), where it has been selected to screen Out of Competition.