Stray Dog
2023 · 15m · Switzerland
Directed by Stefan Djokic
Tones: melancholic, tense
In the Neudorf neighborhood of St. Gallen, Dante lives in a cramped apartment with his dog Othello, working full-time at a job that barely covers his bills. Trapped in a grinding routine and dreaming of escape, he is drawn toward the local drug scene as a shortcut to financial freedom.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Swiss crime cinema doing the unsexy thing—a broke guy and his dog, no glamour, no twist, just the slow suffocation of routine—and somehow that refusal to sensationalize the drug margins feels more dangerous than any heist thriller could manage.
Djokic positions himself in a lineage of European social realism while deliberately sidestepping the moralizing impulse; the restraint in framing Dante's desperation as neither tragedy nor redemption arc shows formal awareness beyond the film's modest budget.
Shot on almost nothing and it holds—the decision to let Othello's presence do the emotional work instead of loading the soundtrack or forcing close-ups on Dante's face is the entire film, and it's the reason you believe his entrapment.
Reviews
Aus dem Hamsterrad ausbrechen – das wollen drei St.Galler mit ihrem Kurzfilm.
Der Kurzfilm «Stray Dog» entstand mit einem Budget von 50 Franken — von der HSG in die St.Galler Drogenszene.
Festivals
- Swiss Short Film Competition 2025