Dog of God
“Heavy Metal” meets Monty Python! A fresh Latvian animated comedy full of witchcraft and perversity.
In a 17th-century Swedish Livonian village, constant rain and drunkenness prevail. When a stolen relic sparks witchcraft accusations, an 80-year-old self-proclaimed werewolf named the Dog of God arrives with a mysterious gift: The Devil’s Balls. This triggers a chain of unexpected events that climaxes in a wild sexual rave party, transforming the village into a frenzy of unleashed desires.
While the Latvian film “Flow” won Best Animated Feature at this year’s Academy Awards, giving the country its first-ever Oscar, the aggressively adult and visually wild “Dog of God” is something else entirely for Latvian animation. Employing rotoscope animation, siblings and co-directors Raitis and Lauris Ābele have crafted a delirious and horror-tinged fever dream of psychedelia that harkens back to the audacious and edgy animation days of filmmakers like Ralph Bakshi and cult classics like “Heavy Metal”. – Matt Barone
Brothers Lauris, Raitis and Marcis are Latvian filmmakers, born and residing in Riga. Lauris obtained a Master’s degree in Audio-Visual Arts (film directing) at Latvian Academy of Culture. Raitis Abele is a clinical psychologist but studied film art at New York Film Academy. Marcis graduated Latvian Culture Academy as D.o.P. and also obtained Masters in Audio-Visual Arts at Latvian Art Academy. Brothers mostly work together as a creative trio dividing various roles of filmmaking and art projects. International success came when Raitis and Lauris co-directed the short "Castratus the Boar" won the Grand Prix at Tampere Short Film Festival in 2015. In 2018 the three brothers together created drama documentary about paganism traditions "Baltic Tribes, Last Pagans of Europe". Besides film, Lauris and Raitis compose music and play in two rock and post-metal bands - Soundarcade and Sonntags Legion.