Chien Blanc

2022 • 95 minutes

About this movie

1968. The United States is on the verge of imploding. Martin Luther King is assassinated, and racial tensions plunge the country into violence. French author, Romain Gary, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Jean Seberg, takes in a stray dog. That dog is soon a fixture in the house, charming the couple’s only son, Diego. The dog is affectionate with everyone – except Black people. The “white dog” has been trained to attack African American demonstrators. For Seberg, a committed ally of the Black Panthers, keeping the dog is unthinkable. For Gary, putting it down is equally unthinkable. Gary becomes fixated on the animal. He can’t abandon it. He takes it to a kennel, hoping to cure it of the hatred that was instilled in it by humans. He entrusts the dog to Keys, a Black dog trainer, who promises to reform it. Keys, gripped by his tragedy, does the job – and then some.