Dog Pound

So, this will probably my last post. It is 8 :20 and I am already at school, I feel like I fell from my bed, but whatever.

I woke up this morning an felt like I forgot to talk about a recent Canadian movie. So, I made some researchs, and BAM ! Now I remember : Dog Pound, directed by Kim Chapiron. First, I thought it was a coproduction between France and England, consideering that Kim Chapiron is a french director, and Ludivine Sagnier’s boyfriend.

Anyway, « Dog Pound », released in theaters in 2010 takes place in a youth detention center named Enola Vale, in the United States, where we follow the first steps of three characters : Butch, Davis and Angel.

Of course, the other young people that are already in the detention center are not angels. And some day, Butch is attacked by a group of jerks, who start to steal him his shoes, then to punch him and to make him suffer. Of course, Butch finally takes his revenge, but some other events makes the situation getting worse, to the point of no return.

Even if this is a really violent film, I actually loved the way Kim Chapiron treated youth and the everyday life of young defenders. The story is never pathetic or overrated, this is always very realistic, with the accurate tone to treat this stange period during which each young boy in this detention center has, more or less, the choice of redemption, or sinking deeper and deeper in violence and lawlessness.

A dog pound is the place where you put abandonned dogs that nobody wants, and this is probably one of the dominant sensations of this film. Indeed, we feel, in the background, that many of these teenagers are completely abandonned to themselves, because at some point of their lives, they made bad choices and their family took them away.

For « Dog Pound », Kim Chapiron receiver the award of the Best New Diector of Narrative Movie in Tribeca Film Festival in New York in 2010.

Who saw this movie ? Did you like it ?