Budapest

Budapest is the urban setting of the Hungarian film White God, as recounted in the book. The city’s streets turn Hagen’s separation from Lili into a struggle for survival and, later, the terrain of a canine uprising. Its slaughterhouse courtyard brings that revolt to a tense encounter with the humans at its center, making Budapest both the site of persecution and the stage for a moment of reconciliation.

The City and the Conflict

The film’s conflict begins with a rule that penalizes owners of dogs that are not purebred. When Lili’s father refuses to pay the tax imposed on owners of such dogs, Hagen is thrown out onto the streets of Budapest. The city’s human institutions then compound his exclusion: dogcatchers obstruct his attempts to return to Lili, and his later capture leads to his confinement in a pound, where he is scheduled to be destroyed.

Streets of Pursuit and Revolt

Budapest first appears as a place Hagen must cross in search of home. Lili, meanwhile, is also trying to find him, but their efforts are frustrated by the dogcatchers and by a man who forces Hagen into fighting. After escaping that man, Hagen is caught again; his escape from the pound becomes a turning point for the city. He frees many other dogs, and they run behind him through the streets, joined by dogs from across Budapest. The city’s dispersed animals become an army, and Hagen’s former route of pursuit is transformed into a path of collective revenge against their human enemies.

The Slaughterhouse Courtyard

The revolt converges at the courtyard of the slaughterhouse where Lili’s father works as a meat inspector. Hagen meets Lili there, but the reunion is charged with danger: he has been transformed by his ordeals and bares his teeth at her, while the dogs gathered around him are ready to attack. Lili recalls that Hagen used to be soothed by her horn, which she plays in her school orchestra. She takes it from her backpack and plays; Hagen calms and lies down, and the other dogs follow. The courtyard, a place associated with the father who began the conflict, briefly becomes a space of quiet between the girl and the dog, with the surrounding pack also at rest.

Significance and Ending

Budapest gives the film’s conflict its scale: the dogs come from every corner of the city, so Hagen’s uprising exceeds a private search for Lili and becomes a collective response to their treatment. Yet the final calm does not resolve their danger. The account emphasizes that the dogs are doomed, even after they have taken revenge. The city therefore holds both the temporary peace Lili creates with her music and the bleak knowledge that the revolt cannot secure the dogs’ lasting safety.