Dog Lady

North American Premiere | Q&A with directors Laura Citarella & Verónica Llinás

An indelible and quietly haunting study of a nameless woman (memorably played by co-director Verónica Llinás) living with a loyal pack of stray dogs in silent, self-imposed exile in the pampas on the edge of Buenos Aires. Almost dialogue-free, the film follows this hermit across four seasons as she patches up her makeshift shack in the woods, communes with nature, and forages for (and sometimes steals) food, making only the briefest of forays into the city and only fleetingly engaging with other people. She’s a distant cousin of Agnès Varda’s protagonist in Vagabond, perhaps, and is just as enigmatic. Dog Lady is filmed with an attentive and sympathetic eye, yet it is careful never to “explain” its subject—but be sure to stay to the very end of the film’s extended final long shot.