Bark!

Colour, 35mm
USA, 2001, 94 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

In the big city a dog barks loudly late into the night. The noise wakes up the residents of the house who go to complain at the flat where the barking is coming from. Peter (Lee Tergesen) opens the door and his sarcastic comments incense them further. The people complaining about the noise, however, do not know that the source of the howling and barking is Peter’s wife Lucy (Heather Morgan, who also wrote the script). She thinks she’s a dog. Her strange psychological state has lasted for several weeks now and Peter is at his wits’ end. His attempts to consult specialists meet with little interest or understanding; one psychiatrist even suggests that this isn’t such a bad defence against the cruelties of the world: to love devotedly and to be loved unconditionally – just the way people love their pets. But to accept this sort of metamorphosis in a loved one is an almost insurmountable task.

About the director

Kasia Adamik (b. 1972) is the daughter of well known Polish director Agnieszka Holland with whom she has worked on all the latter’s films over the last ten years (The Secret Garden, Total Eclipse, Oliver, Oliver, The Third Miracle). She has also worked as an assistant on many Polish films for film and television, some of which were directed by her father Laco Adamik. She has also collaborated with renowned world filmmakers, including Baz Luhrmann (Romeo and Juliet), Jonathan Demme (The Beloved), Luis Mandoki (Angel Eyes), Mark Rydell (James Dean), and Scott Hicks (Hearts in Atlantis). This film is her directorial debut.