The Dog and The Fountain

A couple are forced to live in an apocalyptic abyss about which nothing is known, where the passage of time and their moral successes and failures are all shrouded in a cold, cruel fog. Unable to accept their fate as doomed to dust, the couple superficially fashion a certain hierarchy: the hierarchy of spouses. A set of agreed rules that they see as the only way to combat the catastrophe.
The husband leaves early in the morning and comes home late at night, nobody knows what he's doing, always locking the door when he leaves the house and returning in the evening with a bag full of items. On the other hand, the irrational wife spends her days in the isolation of the house, watering the flowers, which is her only hobby, and developing a strange relationship with her neighbour. Unfortunately, the couple's human feelings are gradually replaced by a humble, animal instinct...

  • Christophe De Moura
    Director
    Pepper Language (Art director), Winter and fire ( Art director)
  • Christophe De Moura
    Writer
    Pepper Language ( Public service advertisement film)
  • Avith Ortega
    Music composer
    Video Games soundtrack: 'ESPIONAGE:Mafia Evolved', 'To Dawn and Back'; Albums: Paradise's Reconstruction(2021), Trail to the Past(2019), Metastasis(2018), Sinergy(2017), Altered Shrine(2016), Impotence(2014), The spill(2012): https://avithortega.com/music/
  • Yenan Dong
    Key Cast
    "The wife"
    The Timid Thief (Selected by the7th Jiavillage Short Film Week) , Anonymous (Selected by the Busan New Wave Short Film Festival and Toronto Women Film Festival) , Fish (Selected by the short film corner of Cannes Film festival)
  • Jianyu Wang
    Key Cast
    "The husband"
    One More Time (Nomination of the 2022 HKIFF), Only The River flows (Nomination of the 'Un Certain Regard' category of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival), Burning Soul (Selected by the short film corner of Cannes Film festival)
  • Junjie Zhai
    Producer
    Into the Void (Producer), Night Falls (Line Producer of the 6th PYIFF "Best Film"), First Light (Producer), Big little things (Producer)
  • Zexin Li
    Cinematographer
    Homework (Selected by the 3rd Hainan Island International Film Festival Short Film Competition), The Rose, After The Pass (Selected by the Beijing Love Queer Cinema Week)
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    狗与泉
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Feature, Other
  • Genres:
    Experimental, Dramatic, Horror
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 13 minutes 51 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 31, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    300,000 CNY
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Country of Filming:
    China
  • Language:
    Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9 4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Christophe De Moura

Christophe De Moura is a French-Portuguese teacher, screenwriter and director living in China. He holds degrees in sinology from Lille and Montpellier Universities (France), graduating in 2020. For many years, he has been dedicated to researching Wang Bing's films and contemporary Chinese documentaries.
His cinematic journey began while teaching at Dalian University (China), where he embarked on a career with the primary ambition of pioneering an experimental and minimalistic approach to filmmaking. His work is driven by a continuous pursuit of imbuing depth and texture into cinematic voids.

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Director Statement

Chinese cinema has always been an important subject in my life, both as a student of Chinese studies and as a screenwriter. The inspiration for The Dog and the Fountain came to me like a call to arms when I came to live in China. China is a country where modernity and existential conflicts are constantly intertwined, and in this respect there are some similarities between Portugal, where I come from, and China. Futhermore, many of the most memorable experiences of my life took place in this country and developing a narrative in a Chinese context was the most imaginable way to achieve my artistic vision.

In order to express the overwhelming power of the cruelty of time over the will of the individual, I constructed a metaphysical power relationship between men and women, which is the source of many ideals and sorrows. The work is a continuation of the "temporality" that has always preoccupied me in my work: capturing time and exposing truth in art. Temporality is the basis for the couple's attempt to survive in a dead world and find meaning.
Thrillers are always intimidating when they take place in real-life situations and have a metaphorical meaning. The film’s setting places the viewer in a seemingly normal, yet extremely delusional and awkward world, revealing heavily and with restraint the whirlpools and madness beneath the calm waters and pains to take root, paving the way for empathy - the fear of depression and the end of time that nobody can escape.