(Athina Rachel Tsangari 2011)
This film blew me away. It reminded me of My Live To Live meets Dogtooth. It is a absurd anthropological portrait-removed at times and intense at others-of where the 21st century is going, along with a comment on the repression that has to be dominant within Greek culture.
The cinematography is beautiful in its minimalism. This works well with the darkness and dead pan of the story and actors. There are shots, like the poster above, that are so clever and interesting-yet incredibly simple-that you're angry as a filmmaker for never considering doing them.
There is also a Antononi-influenced focus on architecture that is unique. The protagonist's father is an architect who critiques modernism throughout the film-amongst the simple stone ancient homes in the film's characters aging small desolate beachtown-to a daughter who lives life like a postmodern nihilist that sarcastically states, when she isn't too busy deconstructing things until even the simple seems complex, that she is one of the last modernists. This relationship with her father is the dominant thread in the film, events outside of it add to a layered metaphor that her father, what he says and what he is going through, stands for. It is a metaphor that is so specific to our current moment, walking away from this film you have so much to unwrap, from the political to the sociological to the philosophical, this film will stay with you for sometime.
This film is also a journey that is an intellectual ride that knows when to take a break and just make us laugh. These Greeks really know what they're doing. While at the same time doing so much with so little, this film and stuff coming out of that country are the types of films we at Shooting Wall have been making and want to see more of.
It is highly suggested you run out to see this film tomorrow night at the Ritz Five at 10pm.
-KARL STARKWEATHER
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