When I first saw White God early last year, my first thought—after I was able to sit back and catch my breath—was, “Wow, this is like Rise of the Planet of the Apes with dogs…But way better than that sounds!” The film revolves around thirteen year-old Lili (Zsófia Psotta, in a fantastic debut performance) and her dog, Hagen (played by canine thespians Bodie and Luke). Set in a dystopian world where purebred dogs are beloved and mixed breeds have to be registered and their owners are fined for housing them, Lili is devastated when her deadbeat father, not willing to be caught with the mixed breed hound, sets Hagen free on the city streets to fend for himself. A thinly veiled metaphor for European fears about dealing with minorities—a far-right party is the third-largest group in the Hungarian parliament—White God is at once a tense thriller, political allegory, and lovable dog story. Lovable dogs aside, however, leave the kids at home. –JBFC Programmer Andrew Jupin