‘WE DON’T DESERVE DOGS’ BARKS UP THE RIGHT TREE
“We Don’t Deserve Dogs,” the latest film from the Brooklynbased Australian filmmaking team of director Matthew Salleh and producer/sound recordist Rose Tucker, is, on the face of it, a documentary about dogs. After all, there is a dog in just about every frame, and the lovingly made film’s entire purpose is to champion our four-legged companions for their unstinting loyalty and camaraderie.
But “WDDD” is really less about dogs in particular than the broader human-canine relationship in general and how individuals all over the world — most notably (and weirdly) not in North America or Australia — have bonded with their dogs, even in cultures where it’s frowned upon. It makes for a far starker, and sometimes more discomfiting, experience than what might be expected from a movie meant to celebrate humankind’s best friend.
In Pakistan, we meet a woman who took in a street dog on the verge of death, and her neighbors — already suspicious of her gender nonconforming look — really can’t understand why she would let a dog stay with her in the house. But the presence of a dog in her life has only strengthened her resolve not to bow to conformity. The relationship she has forged with her pet is unbreakable.
It’s the same with former child soldiers in Uganda, who fled unspeakable horrors and whose faith in humans has been shattered beyond repair. But their dogs, by doing nothing but being themselves, have helped them cope. In the mountains of Romania, the working dogs are more co-workers than pets but are still the objects of love and admiration. The most joyous stories are in Scotland, Finland and Chile, and the latter country is where we learn of a dog named Rocky, who, even though abandoned, found a happy ending.
On the flip side, a Vietnamese seller of dog meat for human consumption — who isn’t all that happy that demand for his goods is waning — has a very different relationship with his animals.
Salleh and Tucker make absolutely no editorial commentary throughout. There’s no narration, no congratulations and no condemnation. There’s not even a title card to tell you where you are in the world. And there’s no history of how the dog-human relationship came to be.
Instead, “WDDD” is mostly a series of voiceovers from the dog owners extolling the virtues of having a dog in their lives. While Salleh and Tucker’s presumably difficult globetrotting to find their subjects is laudable, more context — and less reliance on the beautiful cinematography and pretty but omnipresent score from Blake Ewing — would have been helpful.
The filmmakers provided more information in their last film, “Barbecue,” a look at how various cultures around the world (including Texas) barbecue meat and how the rituals around fire and flesh help bring humanity together. It’s tempting to be snarky and say that live dogs deserve the same approach as dead cows, but then you take one glance at the animals on screen, and just as when you look into the eyes of your dog after they’ve chewed a favorite shoe, all is forgiven.