Dog of God

20th Asian Film Culture Festival JAFF

From April 10–20, the 20th Asian Film Culture Festival JAFF will take place at Artis Cinema, bringing fresh and beautiful selection from the world of Asian cinema, including anime, feature films, and documentaries to the screen.

“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”.