Country: France
Year: 2023
Duration: 115'
Arrested after being found driving while covered in blood, the paraplegic Doug recounts his story to a psychiatrist. Bullied by his fanatical father, he grew up locked in a dog cage, abandoned by his mother and brother. After surviving his father’s retaliation, in which he was shot through the spine, Doug manages to have the man arrested with the help of one of his dogs and is set free. Confined to a wheelchair, he falls in love with his drama teacher at school and, as an adult, gets revenge on his brother and comes to terms with Salma marrying someone else. He survives by running a dog shelter and later squatting in an abandoned factory with his animals, eventually finding work in the only place that will accept him: a drag club. At the same time, using dogs as allies and messengers, Doug becomes a mysterious, heroic figure, a burglar who targets luxury apartments and a protector of the weak. As a result, he arouses the suspicions of a crime boss and a detective, leading to a violent showdown.
Biography
film director
Luc Besson
(France) is a globally recognized French director, screenwriter and producer, and the founder of EuropaCorp. For over four decades he has directed acclaimed, genre-defining films, including The Big Blue (1988), Nikita (1990), Léon (1994), The Fifth Element (1997) and the global blockbuster Lucy (2014). As a writer and producer, he launched successful action franchises, including Taxi, Taken and The Transporter. His recent work as a director includes Dogman (2023) and Dracula: A Love Tale (2025), the second most-seen French film internationally that year. In 2026, he wrote and produced Father Joe by Barthélémy Grossmann, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Ever Anderson and Al Pacino.
FILMOGRAFIA
L’Avant-dernier (cm, 1981), Le Dernier Combat (Kamikaze 1999 - Ultimo combattimento, 1983), Subway (id., 1985), Le Grand Bleu (id., 1988), Nikita (id., 1990), Atlantis (id., doc, 1991), Léon (id., 1994), Le Cinquième Élément (Il quinto elemento, 1997), Jeanne d’Arc (Giovanna d’Arco, 1999), Angel-A (id., 2005), Le Court des grands (cm, 2005), Arthur et les Minimoys (Arthur e il popolo dei Minimei, 2006), Arthur et la Vengeance de Maltazard (Arthur e la vendetta di Maltazard, 2009), Les Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec (Adèle e l’enigma del faraone, 2010), Arthur 3 : La Guerre des deux mondes (Arthur e la guerra dei due mondi, 2010), The Lady (The Lady - L’amore per la libertà, 2011), The Family (Cose nostre - Malavita, 2013), Lucy (id., 2014), Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Valerian e la città dei mille pianeti, 2017), Anna (id., 2019), DogMan (id., 2023), June & John (2025), Dracula (Dracula – L’amore perduto, 2025).
Declaration
film director
“The inspiration for this film came, in part, from an article I read about a French family who threw their own child in a cage when he was five. This rose the question of what that does to a person mentally. How does someone survive and what do they do with their suffering? I wanted to explore that idea with Dogman. Suffering is something we all have in common, and the only antidote against it is love. Society won’t help you, but love can help to heal. It is the love of the community of dogs that Dogman has built that are the healer and the catalyst.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: Luc Besson. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Colin Wandersman. EDITING: Julien Rey. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Hugues Tissandier. COSTUME DESIGN: Corinne Bruand. MUSIC: Eric Serra. SOUND: Yves Levêque, Guillaume Bouchateau, Aymeric Devoldère, Stéphane Thiébaut, Victor Praud. CAST: Caleb Landry Jones, Jojo T. Gibbs, Christopher Denham, Clemens Schick, Grace Palma. PRODUCTION: Virginie Besson-Silla for LBP, Europacorp, TF1 Films Production. CONTACT: Lucky Red - www.luckyred.it.
