Il Colpo del Cane

It seems like easy money: dogsitting an elderly rich lady's little French bulldog for the weekend. But this is where Marti, the protagonist in Italian director Fulvio Risuelo's adventurous Il colpo del cane, is wrong. Not only is her rate lowballed, the expensive accessory gets dognapped. Together with her girlfriend, Marti sets off on a wild pursuit. Then Risuleo swaps the perspective around: who is the peculiar thief anyway? Isn't everybody, including the pup, a victim of circumstance? In his second feature, Risuleo again shows his adroitness in creating fanciful and ludicrous situations. And, again, he shows the overlooked side of his beloved Rome – as if Gianfranco Rosi's Sacro GRA was remade as a comedy. As with all good farces, the tone is inevitably tragic. No matter whether you have too much or too little of it, money ruins people's lives. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)