Natural Frequency: on Dog Lady

Even before there is anything discernible on the screen, Dog Lady is evidently a film with the rhythms and sounds of nature at its patient heart. Opening deep in the undergrowth, the apposite snuffling of a canine precedes our introduction to an unnamed woman (played with quiet humanity by co-director Verónica Llinás) stalking the forest with a slingshot. The level of her success is hard to ascertain, but a later scene in which she memorably knocks an abusive youth off his bike with a rock from quite a range would suggest that her aim is true.