When a dog wags the tale

by Richard Mowe for the French Film Festival UK

Laetitia Dosch’s desire to get behind the camera was prompted by the notion of making “an unsettling comedy that talks about important issues and shifts tones constantly. I also wanted to act in a film like that.”

Her producer Lionel Baier, a frequent guest at the French Film Festival UK as director of films such as Continental Drift, La Vanité, Un autre homme and Stupid Boy, had attended a performance of Dosch’s play Hate in 2020. She had shared the stage with an equine partner – Corazon, a majestic Spanish pure breed horse. After the performance, Baier said to her: “If you can do that, then you can direct a film.”

Dosch continued: “And I believed him, even though I now know they’re nothing alike. A few days later, I was told a story about a trial involving a dog. And I felt it was my kind of comedy: absurd, nebulous, and raising lots of questions.”

With Dog on Trial (presented earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival) her aim was to arouse the audience’s curiosity and question their preconceived ideas. It was inspired by real events: a dog owner was put on trial because his dog was accused of repeatedly biting people – and the case became a cause célèbre, dividing opinion and a town’s residents. She added: “Because, as we can see, we need to reinvent our relationship to living things if we want to survive. For instance, we often think of animals as objects. In Dog on Trial, Swiss law equates the dog Cosmos with a thing, not an individual, so if it’s euthanised, ‘you don’t kill it, you destroy it’.”

As an avid attendee of trials, Laetitia Dosch acknowledges the importance of listening. She explained: “What made me laugh was that all it took was for the dog’s status to change – he was no longer a thing, but a person – for everything to become instantly surreal. Suddenly, a dog is called to the stand with humans who are completely powerless to judge him.”

Although the film addresses serious issues, it is also full of humour. “For me, laughter is essential, and comedy is a noble art that’s accessible to everyone. I think it’s great to entertain viewers, especially if you want to talk about deep, serious issues. I’m a fan of Pierre Salvadori’s films (The Little Gang in this year’s French Film Festival selection), or of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s series Fleabag for these very reasons. It’s a genre that should be considered more highly, because it can really make life more liveable.

“And what’s funny is the way they see us: our extremes, our stupidity. Kodi is an acrobatic dog and circus performer. Initially, I’d written some incredible bits of choreography for him, but I took most of it out. In the film, he’s not a circus animal. What’s moving are the shots where he’s simply there, where we tried to capture his inner self, his emotions. We got a few shots of him worthy of any great actor.”

Dosch’s connection to the animal world goes back to her childhood. She revealed in one interview: “I lived with my uncles and grandparents. There were many people in the house, but also many animals. In our house there were pets who were like our friends, but there were also stuffed animals hung on the walls.”

Kodi (a Belgian Malinois mix) was rewarded for his efforts when he became the recipient of the Palm Dog award for the best performance by a canine at the Cannes Film Festival, in stiff competition with Xin who was awarded the jury prize for the Chinese drama Black Dog. Last year’s winner was Messi for his performance as Snoop in the much-garlanded French thriller Anatomy of a Fall, directed by Justine Triet. As coincidence would have it, Dosch had starred in Triet’s first film Age of Panic in 2012 (also revived in this year’s French Film Festival selection). As an actress Dosch takes a main role in Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu’s Jim’s Story, screening in the Festival as part of the line-up at London’s Ciné Lumière. She had never imagined anyone else playing the role of the feisty lawyer Avril who defends the dog in court. “I never considered anyone else for the role,” she says. “I knew inside this character’s head, the way she sees the world.”

Dog on Trial screens at:

Glasgow Film Theatre, 25 November

Edinburgh Dominion, 25 November and 1 December

Chichester Cinema, 30 November