What starts off as a charming trailer about a dog groomer in a small Italian town soon turns into a nightmarish story of an innocent man at the mercy of a local thug. Dogman, from Gomorrah's Matteo Garrone, takes place in a seaside village where "the rule of law is survival of the fittest." However, there are also dogs! Which is ... nice!

The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where star Marcello Fonte won the award for Best Actor. Dogman was also selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, though ultimately it was not nominated. Still, it comes with rave reviews and looks like it could be one of the year's most compelling features.

Dogman stars Fonte as Marcello, Edoardo Pesce as Simoncino, Alida Baldari Calabria as Alida, Nunzia Schiano as Simoncino's mother, Adamo Dionisi as Franco, and Francesco Acquaroli as Francesco. The film debuts in theaters April 12th. Check out the trailer below:

The official synopsis for Dogman:

In a seaside village on the outskirts of an Italian city, where the only law seems to be survival of the fittest, Marcello is a slight, mild-mannered man who divides his days between working at his modest dog grooming salon, caring for his daughter Alida, and being coerced into the petty criminal schemes of the local bully Simoncino, an ex-boxer who terrorizes the neighborhood. When Simoncino’s abuse finally brings Marcello to a breaking point, he decides to stand up for his own dignity through an act of vengeance, with unintended consequences.