Juha (Pekka Strang) is a very successful heart surgeon who used to have the perfect life – a happy family, a few houses that they could escape to for the weekend and a generally pleasant position in the world – it is essentially what many dream to accomplish. This is until his wife accidentally drowns while out swimming, and leaves him widowed. Seven years later, he’s a single father of Elli (Ilona Huhta), who has grown into a rebellious teenager who fights against her father’s overprotective nature, to the point where there’s only a slender thread keeping their relationship from completely collapsing. One afternoon while taking Elli to get a piercing, Juha ventures a bit too far, and his curiosity gets the better of him when he’s introduced to Mona (Krista Kosonen), a sinister dominatrix who takes her job a little too seriously. Not realizing that this is the solution to his psychological problems at first. but gradually allowing himself to be taken by the presence of this woman, Juha strikes up an unusual working relationship with her, scheduling regular appointments where she degrades him, and tortures the unassuming doctor to his wit’s end. Each session ends in the same way – Juha begs Mona to place a plastic bag over his head and strangle him to the point of near unconsciousness. This dangerous practise becomes increasingly more intense as time goes on (as per Juha’s instructions), until Mona finally realizes that her client is not getting sexual gratification out of this, but rather is actively seeking to die in the same way that his wife did. However, as much as she tries to cut off their partnership, the more he pursues her, and Mona can’t help being very curious to see how she can help this man who seems singularly unable to help himself.

There’s a very narrow boundary between erotic desire and torture, which is the thesis statement of Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (Finnish: Koirat eivät käytä housuja), the bizarre film by J-P Valkeapää, which looks into a relationship between a milquetoast doctor suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the sex worker he finds a very unconventional salvation in. It’s not particularly clear what the director was trying to do with this film, but whatever it was, he was quite successful since so much of this is a work of unmitigated brilliance in a very non-traditional sense. A deft combination of harrowing psychological thriller, bleak dark comedy and heartbreaking melodrama, Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is quite an experience, and not one that is always very pleasant. Undeniably part of a new movement of European filmmakers that push the boundaries of not only decency, but also sanity that has become quite prominent over the last two decades, Valkeapää’s film is not something that should be taken only at face value, since while there are many perverted surprises lingering well-below the surface of what is already quite a difficult film, the challenging nature of the material, and the director’s stark and unforgiving style, means that Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is about as inappropriate for casual viewing as a film can possibly be. Some of the issues raised throughout this film are undeniably fascinating, and it goes in some inspired directions, but it doesn’t get to its final destination without putting the characters (and by extent, the entire audience) through quite an ordeal. It’s difficult to know if I enjoyed this film or not, but what is exceptionally clear is that it’s unlike anything else someone is likely to see anytime soon.

Talking about Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is already quite a disorienting experience – it’s a film that doesn’t have a clear direction at first, being composed of mostly fragmented scenes that don’t make sense initially, but through some clever allusion and the audience’s own discernment, we’re able to piece together not only the specifics of the plot, but the general ideas that are going to be dominant throughout the film. A tone is difficult to discern at first – situated at some perverted intersection between magical realism and outright surrealism, Dogs Don’t Wear Pants has a grasp on many different ideas, not all of them as obvious as we’d expect. The general premise lends itself to dark comedy, but there’s such an intentional lack of sardonic humour, we can’t really classify it as such – certainly, there are many moments of unhinged hilarity (such as the stunning final scene), but these are situations where humour is used as a way of unveiling the generally unpleasant tone that the film is deliberately disseminating, a kind of disconcerting despair that is more likely to make us have an existential crisis than evoke a few meagre chuckles. In spite of all this, Dogs Don’t Wear Pants isn’t a film that could be considered confused in any way – in fact, it’s a film that seems predominantly in control, knowing precisely where it intends to go, without needing to be heavy-handed about the serious subject matter, nor flippant in its attempts to infuse them with a pitch-black humour that challenges us to look somewhat deeper into this already complex story, finding the unquestionable truths in Valkeapää’s view of the human condition.

For the most part, films are supposed to be pleasant and entertaining. In the case that they’re not, they normally have some broader purpose, such as educating viewers to a particular issue, or showing them a side of life that we may not normally have much access to. There is a small subset of films that are intentionally unpleasant, of which Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is a firm constituent. These kinds of films understand that discomfort, when used properly, can be a powerful narrative tool, and while this may cause films such as this to be highly divisive and perhaps even outright controversial, it does allow a kind of artistic freedom that has gradually become more available to independent filmmakers. Stories like the one Valkeapää tells in Dogs Don’t Wear Pants would have barely found even a niche audience a few decades ago, normally being the bottom of the proverbial barrel sometimes termed as “underground cinema”, which was basically shorthand for films that no one wanted to make, and even few wanted to see. Mercifully, the realization that there is an audience for this kind of film – and not merely those who are part of the community represented within – has made for such compelling cinema over the past few decades, and managed to give so many alternative filmmakers the chance to tell their stories without censorship softening the often blunt blow of their message. Here, the director is commenting on something very familiar – trauma is not something new to art, and there have been countless filmmakers who have explored this topic in various ways, whether through directly addressing the mourning period, or focusing on the psychological complexities that come with any kind of tragic event. Valkeapää unveils a kind of unimpeachable human truth that transcends the boundaries of traditional narrative tropes, and instead cuts to the core of reality in a way that is often quite disorientating, but once we’re on the wavelength of this story, absolutely nothing can come close to the experience of seeing something so familiar delivered in such a hauntingly beautiful manner.

Dogs Don’t Wear Pants very effectively takes a challenging premise, and turns it into a powerful film that isn’t weighed down by the ludicrous nature of its plot (and based on simply reading the description, one would be conditioned to expect the most absurd of dark comedies, which isn’t the case here at all). Where Valkeapää deviates is in how he presents this story without any kind of cheeky comedy – each moment of humour is intentionally well-placed into a particular situation, and conveyed with such outright honesty, it’s difficult to see this as a novelty in the same way a more conventional dark comedy would present itself. A large portion of the success of this film comes in how Valkeapää handles the tone – despite the premise, Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is not a very funny film, and it often takes the form of a sobering glimpse into the mind of very lonely individuals, and therefore needs to take its subject very seriously. Rooted heavily within reality, Dogs Don’t Wear Pants successfully conveys an authenticity that seemed nearly impossible for such a bizarre film. This often manifests most successfully in the characters, with the performances of the two leads being truly impressive – Pekka Strang and Krista Kosonen are a formidable pair, and despite playing characters on two opposite ends of the professional spectrum, they’re both two wayward souls looking for a sense of belonging. The two actors bring out such genuine emotion in their roles, and play off each other so beautifully, it’s difficult to not be thoroughly moved by them. They deliver two distinct masterclasses of rising above the material, which is in this case seems far more absurd than their performances would imply, and they find the truth in some harrowing situations that give them (and the film as a whole) such an extraordinary sense of authenticity.

Ultimately, what makes Dogs Don’t Wear Pants such a compelling film is in its gentle approach to a truly harrowing set of themes, which don’t often manifest in quite as interesting a way as they do here, making this an immediately interesting film that begs for our attention. The combination of a unique approach to a familiar premise, the daring ability to approach some common themes through the lens of complete narrative chaos, and a pair of exceptional performances are more than enough to qualify  Dogs Don’t Wear Pants as one of the year’s most interesting achievements. In all honesty, this film may not appeal to everyone – it is divisive by design, and there are some sequences that seem to be actively attempting to alienate the viewers. Had this been a mainstream film, we could take this as a failure – but absolutely nothing about this film suggests that anyone was trying to make something that would please everyone, and its occasionally absurd approach to some very serious issues is often its most interesting quality. Carrying all the makings of a cult classic, and yearning to be discovered by a wider audience, Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is the brilliant Finnish drama that simply begs to be seen, and should someone be interested in sampling from the mind of a director who manages to blend the demented with the sophisticated without any hesitation, then this film is absolutely something that should be actively sought out and experienced, since its unlike anything else we’re likely to see.