Kodi aka Cosmos in “The Trial of the Dog” and the fight of his life.
© Bande à Part Films
At the last Cannes Film Festival, Laetitia Dosch received a prize in the form of a first for her film The Trial of the Dog. The actress and director shares more about the ins and outs of her comedy and reveals why she had to meow on set.
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July 1, 2024 – 08:56
If the audience gave Sean Baker’s film a standing ovation AnoraPalme d’Or at Cannes last month, Switzerland returned with a prize that primarily delights souls receptive to man’s best friend: the Palme Dog.
This is Laetitia Dosch’s first production, entitled The Trial of the Dog. Kodi, eight years old, plays the main role. That of Cosmos, a restless and sometimes aggressive griffin, threatened with euthanasia after he bit three people.
In Cannes, the latter follows in the footsteps of Messi, his peer, star of Justine Triet’s film Anatomy of a fallPalme d’Or last year.
Unfortunately, Kodi was not present during the interviews given on the windy terrace of the Palais des Festivals. Unlike Laetitia Dosch, who was open to the question game.
In her film, the Franco-Swiss actress plays the role of April, a lawyer in her thirties, who agrees to defend Cosmos, while supporting Dariush, the latter’s rough human.
If, at first, the young lawyer does not display an overwhelming love for dogs, she gradually falls under the spell of Cosmos. In court, she confronts the famous lawyer and politician Roseline Bruckenheimer, who insists that the dog be punished with the death penalty.
Roseline Bruckenheimer does everything she can to convince the court that Cosmos only bites women. She calls him a “misogynist” and triggers a public storm that stirs up feminists, environmentalists, animal rights activists and opponents of immigration.
Laetitia Dosch, who directed “The Trial of the Dog”, with Kodi, the star of her film.
Invision
With a horse on stage
Laetitia Dosch reminds us that sharing the limelight with an animal is nothing new for her. In 2018, in collaboration with Yuval Rozman, she staged a play called Hate (Attempt at a duet with a horse)External linkwhere his playing partner was none other than a proud Spanish thoroughbred named Corazon.
Then her producer assured her that, having known how to work with a horse, she could just as well become a director. “Which has nothing to do with it!” laughs Laetitia Dosch.
During the Swiss Evening in Cannes, Kodi and Laetitia Dosch with the Swiss Minister of Culture, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider.
Keystone / Jean-Christophe Bott
Looking back on the play, she notes that ecology, feminism and human relationships with other species are themes that run through all of her work.
Laetitia Dosch also confides that the very idea for the film originally came to her from a viewer. He told her about a trial held in Switzerland. In the dock, an owner and his dog who, having bitten three people, risked euthanasia. A trial that had caused a lot of noise.
During her research, Laetitia Dosch came across a similar case, taken to the European Court of Human Rights. The dog had been killed even before the judgment.
Asked what tickled the director, she replied that “the legal status of animals is not clearly defined. When the answer is not clear, passion arises – a space that allows us to think and delve deeper.”
Populism and the human beast
The Trial of the Dog is a drama that grapples with serious social, ethical and political themes. Influenced by series like FleabagExternal link and its messy protagonists or even by the very singular humor of Louis CKExternal linkLaetitia Dosch once again embodies a crazy character, which is reminiscent of her participations in Young woman or in The Battle of Solferinofirst production by Justine Triet.
Director and screenwriter, she hits the nail on the head with what she depicts of populist leaders – Roseline Bruckenheimer in the film. A character who reminds us how easy it is to manipulate public opinion. Just think of Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and others…
Still, trying to draw parallels between the situation of women, immigrants, animals and other disadvantaged groups in society is a challenge. And the humorous tone of the film doesn’t entirely do justice to the breadth of the subject it attempts to illuminate.
However, the director never seeks to impose an opinion. There is no dogmatism in the film. Through her character, she rather expresses her own dismay in the face of some of the problems she addresses.
Pets and on walls
Laetitia Dosch has long accepted her connection with animals. “I think it goes back strangely to my childhood. I lived with my uncles and my grandparents. Lots of humans at home, but animals too. At home, they were servants, our friends, but also stuffed, against the walls.
Kodi during the Palme Dog presentation.
2024 Invision
His grandfather was an ornithologist. “He loved birds and his way of showing it was to steal eggs from nests and place them in boxes to collect them. He had one of the largest egg collections in Europe. The question of respecting what we love and loving without respecting has been very present since my childhood.”
Laetitia Dosch underlines the crucial importance of the right casting to embody the hero of the film, adorable but not easy. She and her team evaluated dogs as trainers. Many achieved feats, according to the director.
After several unsuccessful attempts, after discussing her breeding work on a radio show, she received a showreel of Kodi. “He is a very special dog. He lived on the streets for a long time before being rescued and then starting to work with his trainers.”
The dog does not howl
But a major challenge awaited the director and her team: Kodi never howled. “A big scare for us, knowing that it was an essential element in the script. We asked the special effects team to fix it. Too expensive. In the end, they observed that by imitating the meows of a kitten, Kodi started howling.”
When asked what made Kodi the perfect dog to play Cosmos, Laetitia Dosch said his physical abilities.
“I loved all the emotions and vitality that his face reflected. His showreel proves that he can do incredible things. I integrated all of that into the script. But in the editing, I decided to eliminate everything or almost everything, except for a scene in court, important for the plot. If I had kept everything, Kodi would have looked like a fairground dog, I refused to do that.”
Two women, two dog movies
About Justine Triet, with whom she worked in 2013 on The Battle of Solferino, Laetitia Dosch confides that she met him during a concert thirteen years ago. A meeting in the form of a trigger for both of them.
A thread that is probably due to chance connects the two women since both have made a legal drama featuring a dog. Films presented at Cannes only a year apart.
Justine Triet with her Palme d’Or during the last Cannes Film Festival.
Keystone-EPA/Guillaume Horcajuelo
“It’s a very funny story,” explains Laetitia Dosch. Four years ago, returning from Cannes, we were sitting opposite each other. She told me she was working on writing a trial film. I said, ‘Me too!’ She told me there was a dog in her story. In mine too! His script included a child and a blind character, mine too. ‘I’m ruined!’, I said to myself. All joking aside, I was really scared. I even thought about changing the subject, I had been working on it for a year. Honestly, I don’t know – coincidences probably arise from our subconscious.”
Text proofread and checked by Virginie Mangin and Eduardo Simantob, translated from English by Pierre-François Besson/op
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