The Flying Dog (2019)

Directed by: Johannes Hogenbrink | 75 minutes | documentary, drama

Artist Johannes Hogenbrink likes three things: flying (the verb, not the insects), dogs and making films, he explains in a lecture, where he quickly gets the laughs on the hand. That cheerfulness does not remain in the documentary ‘The flying dog’, with which the filmmaker follows and sometimes stages the realization of his great dream of being the first to make a dog fly.

Chayka is Johannes’ adopted dog. His previous dog, Sopje, was adventurous and Johannes had actually wanted to realize his dream with that four-legged friend. But Sopje was old and died before this worked. Chayka looks a bit like him and was born around the time Sopje went to dog heaven, so for Johannes this is a sign: it must happen with Chayka.

The path to the realization of the dream is not without clichés: the necessary technical setbacks, people who think he is crazy, disagreements with friends, whose help Johannes really needs. And Chayka even runs away once. Despite this predictability, ‘The Flying Dog’ continues to fascinate. That must be the passion, because do we really want to see Chayka take to the air?

Despite the fact that Johannes dearly loves his dog, his actions are occasionally dangerous against animal cruelty. That Johannes himself is aware of this is apparent from the sometimes comical voice-over by Frans Bromet, who gives Chayka a voice and thus lets the viewer know what the viewer has known for a long time: Chayka does not need this. This is confirmed by a real Austrian dog whisperer, who informs Johannes that Chayka would like to fly, but then on Johannes’ back.

But Johannes persists and that nagging sometimes causes irritation. At the same time, you can understand his attitude, because, so is his valid argument: progress often comes from people who have been declared crazy. For the sake of convenience, he omits the usefulness of flying dogs for society. ‘The flying dog’ contains a number of inventive animations (at the beginning and the end) and is just long enough with a running time of 75 minutes. Not necessarily suitable for dog lovers, but for fans of bizarre movies.