Screening Date: 24 July 2025
Screening Time: 7pm
Release Date: 2024
Directors: Guan Hu
Country: China
Running Time: 110mins
Rating: M
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
A weirdly seductive and very enjoyable film about a man and a dog. Part old time western, part political portrait of contemporary China, even part Mad Max, Black Dog is witty mashup of just about every cinema tradition going.
Returning to his hometown on the edge of the Gobi Desert after a lengthy stint in prison, Lang, our classic anti-hero, is tall, dark and handsome with attitude to burn. The old town is in strife. (in another time and place, and certainly in another movie, we’d just call it Dodge.) Weeks out from the Beijing Olympics, the town’s unsightly old buildings have been placed under demolition orders by the ruthless Government and the town officials decide to crack down on the stray canines that preside over the streets, particularly the elusive Black Dog. Anyone in the way is in trouble and Lang is very definitely in the way. And Black Dog is too clever to be caught. But Lang’s imagination is captured by this wily canine gangster. They seem to think the same way. Man and beast also have approximately the same amount of dialogue – not much at all. There is also a circus troupe, a lonesome tiger, and a snake farmer called Butcher Hu whom Lang must reckon with. There are a lot of scores to settle before our shy, silent type triumphs and can finally ride out of town, with his dog, as the sun goes down.
Surprising, charming, clever and tapping into a rich vein of cinema history, Black Dog was the winner of Un Certain Regard at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
“…one of the most touching on-screen relationships of the year.” Time Out
