Oscars 2025: Latvia Bets on Animation Again With the Bold and Uncompromising “Dog of God”
If you thought the animation landscape peaked when Latvia took home the gold for “Flow” at the Oscars 2025, you might want to sit down. Actually, scratch that – you might want to brace yourself. There’s “Dog of God.” While the world was busy cooing over Gints Zilbalodis’s silent, adorable cat survival story, the Abele brothers (Lauris and Raitis) were cooking up something that sits on the complete opposite end of the sanity spectrum.
What is “Dog of God?”
It’s gross, it’s gorgeous, and it involves a werewolf tearing the testicles off the Devil. Yes, you read that correctly. It happens.
Fresh off its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, this 17th-century fever dream is officially Latvia’s submission for the 2026 Academy Award race, but the buzz is heavily rooted in the momentum generated by the Oscars 2025 animation victory. If “Flow” was the gentle caress of Baltic artistic capability, “Dog of God” is a closed-fist punch to the throat. We are definitely here for it.
Not Your Grandmother’s Werewolf Story
Hollywood has pretty much beaten the werewolf trope to death. We’ve had the brooding teen wolves, the body-horror transformations, and the classic full-moon slashers. But “Dog of God” isn’t interested in your pop-culture lycanthropy.
Based on actual Livonian folklore (and some “naughty” folk songs the directors weren’t allowed to read in school), the film flips the script. Here, the werewolf – known as the “Hound of God” – isn’t the villain. The character, Thiess, is a shamanistic protector who descends into Hell to fight witches and protect the harvest.
The real monsters? The villagers. Set in a rain-soaked, dung-covered village in Zaube, the story follows a maid accused of witchcraft and the absolute hypocrisy of the religious zealots running the show. It’s a tale as old as time: dogmatic thinking and power-hungry elites ruining everything, while the guy claiming to be a werewolf is actually the most moral person in the room.
A Psychedelic Rotoscope Trip
Visually, “Dog of God” is doing the most, in the best way possible. The Abele brothers originally planned this as a live-action flick, but (yeah) thankfully, they pivoted. Why? Because live-action has limits, and animation lets you go straight to a purgatorial vision of hell – literally.
Using rotoscope technology (think “A Scanner Darkly” but way grimier), the film achieves a surreal, jittery realism that makes the horror hit viewers harder. The opening scene alone is astounding in “WTF” energy, featuring a decaying orange wasteland and that aforementioned confrontation with the Devil. It’s earthy, tactile, and gross. The directors admitted they were inspired by everything from B-class Hong Kong kung-fu movies to the 80s “Heavy Metal” aesthetic, and it shows.
The Anti-Flow Effect
It is impossible to talk about this movie without mentioning the giant, feline-shaped elephant in the room. Latvia is having a massive cultural moment. But Raitis Abele has been clear: this movie is the anti-“Flow.”
While working with the same animation community that brought us the Oscars 2025 winner, the Abele brothers decided to go rogue. Where “Flow” is dialogue-free and universal, “Dog of God” is chatty, specific, and steeped in “pre-Freudian pagan sexuality.” Interesting. It’s a bold strategy. Submitting a film this divisive and gritty for the International Feature race is a gamble, but it proves that Latvian animation isn’t a one-trick pony.
Why We Should Be Watching
We live in an era of safe, calculated cinema. Franchises are terrified to offend, and “edgy” usually just means dark lighting. “Dog of God” feels like a dangerous artifact dug up from a time when we didn’t sanitize our folklore.
It challenges the audience. It’s not checking boxes for a four-quadrant success; it’s a critique of the very institutions – church, government, corporate – that demand conformity. It’s messy, loud, and brazenly weird. As we look past the Oscars 2025 season and into the future of international cinema, “Dog of God” stands out as a reminder that animation is an adult medium capable of serious and nightmarish storytelling. If you’re tired of the same old cookie-cutter narratives, keep your eyes peeled for this one. Just… maybe don’t watch it while you’re eating.
