Stray Dogs, the latest film by visionary director Tsai Ming-liang (
Goodbye Dragon Inn) links together a series of sumptuously composed scenes that tell the story of a broken family living on the margins of Taipei society through tableau-like scenes, often without words. ‘Like Tsai's sublime
I Don't Want to Sleep Alone,
Stray Dogs plucks its characters from society's margins; without sentimentalizing their subjects, these films exude empathy for day labourers and the homeless. As one mysterious, gorgeously composed scene gives way to the next, we come to know these characters, and something of their history, a time when they indeed had a home, a mother, a very different sort of life. We gaze into their past with them, are invited to share in their loss, and, gradually, imagine some brighter future.’ (Toronto Film Festival
Catalogue)
Grand Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival
Toronto Film Festival, Wavelengths
