a date with the Dog Nail Clipper

For the last two weekends, I’ve been wandering in the cinema lobby of Makati Shangri-la, lining-up to get tickets of the annual Cine Europa festival. I’ve been following this festival 3 years in a row now.

For the first Saturday I watched the Finnish movie, Koirankynnen Leikkaaja, the english title is Dog Nail Clipper. The style of the film is nothing new but is definitely rare these days, especially in the local setting. It is very inspirational and heartwarming, with all the fast-track, technology-driven, computer-enhanced, chillingly scary and armageddon themed films dominating the industry, this film that touches the human spirit will definitely bring back the balance. To give you a brief glimpse of the movie, the story is about Mertsi, a young WW2 veteran who survived but was brain damaged by a gun shot in his head. He was left homeless and without a family after the war. His life is full of struggles from mockery, hunger to sickness. You must be wondering why this movie is oddly titled Dog Nail Clipper. When Mertsi met a hunting farmer who has a dog growing painful toe nails, he embarked on a mission to find the dog and clip its nails to free it from its misery. A truly compassionate and ideal act for a person with Mertsi’s life situation right? Also worth to commend is Mertsi’s protector and friend, Eetvi. A line from him near the ending of the movie specially struck me, “when you take care of someone, you do it forever”. Eetvi was the one who saved Mertsi’slife during the war, and when Mertsi fell fatally ill again he was the same person who brought him in the same hospital back when he was shot.

This complex and subtle film will never fail to touch your heart. The director, Pollonen, captured the essence of the perfect inspirational movie.


Go and grab a copy now!