THE DOG SOLDIER
Dog Soldier is a nostalgic, anarchic short film inspired by Rob Perrett’s teenage years in the 1980s and the friendship he shared with a young man known by his Citizens Band radio handle: Dog Soldier. Rob’s own handle was G-String—officially a reference to the string on a guitar, although the joke was never particularly subtle.
At the centre of the story is a customised Volkswagen Beetle: Ferrari red with white bodywork details, an exposed rear engine and an extraordinarily long chrome tailpipe rising into the air. Its interior was stripped back and basic, while a six-foot magnetic CB aerial on the roof clattered against low bridges as the pair tore through the Wiltshire countryside, searching for distant voices across the airwaves.
Dog Soldier drove with absolute confidence and very little concern for self-preservation. Crossroads were approached without slowing, fog-covered hills were treated as challenges, and danger was frequently met with the cry, “Who wants to live forever?” Together, the two friends enticed police officers into chasing them, tested the patience of the local constabulary and escaped serious consequences largely through cheek, luck and the sense of invincibility that belongs to being eighteen.
His chosen name reflected his ambition to join the French Foreign Legion, but also a harder and more unsettling way of looking at the world. Dog Soldier was fascinated by hypothetical scenarios involving war, social collapse and even a zombie apocalypse. During these conversations, he would tell Rob with complete seriousness that, in such a crisis, he would kill him as an act of kindness because he believed Rob would never survive. It was an alarming declaration from the person who was, at the time, his closest friend—and perfectly captured the strange combination of loyalty, brutality and dark humour that defined Dog Soldier.
Beneath the reckless energy, the film is about friendship, youth and the peculiar freedom of an era before mobile phones and social media, when connection came through crackling radio signals from hilltops and adventure could begin simply by climbing into a ridiculous car. It also explores the unsettling contradictions within teenage friendship: affection expressed through mockery, loyalty mixed with danger, and the certainty that the people beside us will remain unchanged forever.
Intended as the final short film in Rob Perrett’s current collection, Dog Soldier will revisit that period with affection, honesty and black humour: a portrait of two young men, one unforgettable car and a friendship lived at full speed beneath the recurring question, “Who wants to live forever?”
The script for Dog Soldier is currently being written and the project remains in development. Conceived as a short film for the festival circuit, it will combine nostalgia, reckless humour and a darker examination of friendship, youth and the illusion of invincibility.
(The imagery on this page is AI-generated and presented as artistic impressions, created to communicate the characters, period, atmosphere and intended visual direction of the project. It should not be regarded as final production imagery.)
