Dog Food

Producer: Carlos Siguion-Reyna
Screenplay: Enrique Ramos
Director of Photography: Romulo Araojo
Editor: Manet A. Dayrit
Cast: Ricky Davao, Dante Rivero, Alessandra de Rossi, Glydel Mercado

US PREMIERE

Contemporary anthropologists insist that we examine a society’s cuisine through culturally specific lenses. A cow is revered in India, while its meat is served at a fast-food joint in America. Likewise, one person’s pet could be a delicacy of another.

Tomas (Davao) tells his daughter Lily (De Rossi, in a powerful debut performance), a dog-loving teenager, that her pet Bagwis is to be served as an appetizer for his coming birthday party. She confronts the local dog-meat vendor Teban (Rivero) and he returns her pet unharmed. An unlikely friendship develops between the aging butcher and the dog-loving teenager. Tomas becomes suspicious of the friendship, and does everything in his hallowed macho power to suppress it.

The narrative develops to depict the textures and flavors of urban slum, fraught with social issues familiar to Philippine cinema: incest, spousal abuse, corruption and misogyny. Despite melodramatic devices such as gun chases, physical abuse and hysteria, the film’s nonchalant treatment of a jarring subject matter leads the viewer to a different and disturbing experience. Once again, Siguion-Reyna offers us a film that’s like a hearty piece of meat, cooked rare with the juices and drippings oozing out.

Michael Magnaye

Dog Food (Azucena) is showing in this program:

Grrrls, Uninterrupted