''Attenberg'' is a 2010 Greek

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

, written and directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari. The film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the

67th Venice International Film Festival The 67th annual Venice International Film Festival held in Venice, Italy, took place from 1 to 11 September 2010. American film director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino was the head of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Darren Aro ...

and

Ariane Labed Ariane Labed (born 8 May 1984) is a Greek-French actress and film director. She is known for her feature film debut in ''Attenberg'', for which she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and appearing in Helen Edmundson's film ''Mary Magdalene'' in ...

won the

Coppa Volpi The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

for the Best Actress. It was filmed in the town of Aspra Spitia, in the Greek region of

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, wikt:Βοιωτία, Βοιωτία; modern Greek, modern: ; ancient Greek, ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is pa ...

. The film was selected as the Greek entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress# ...

at the

84th Academy Awards The 84th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2011 in the United States and took place on February 26, 2012, at the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre in H ...

, but it did not make the final shortlist.

Plot

Marina, a sexually inexperienced 23-year-old woman, lives with her terminally-ill architect father, Spyros, in an industrial Greek town by the sea where she works at the local steel mill. Unable to relate to her fellow humans, she lives her life through the wildlife documentaries of

Sir David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural history ...

, the songs of

Suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

and the sex education lessons given to her by her friend Bella. Despite her sexual inexperience, Marina's relationships with her father and Bella show warmth and thought. Spyros, contemplative as he approaches death, shares with her how he believes, "Man has designed ruins with mathematical accuracy..." referring to the destiny of most architecture, eventually. But then cynically, he reflects that "We (Greece) went from sheep to bulldozers...". When a stranger comes to town, an engineer who begins a work course at the steel mill, Marina has her first sexual relationship with him. She is secretive but shares her experience first with Spyros, and later with Bella. As Spyros comes closer to death, Marina asks Bella to sleep with her father as a favor for the dying man, who has not been with a woman for a long time. Meanwhile, Marina begins a sexual relationship with the stranger. The film reaches its conclusion after Spyros's demise, where the last scenes are of Bella and Marina scattering his ashes over the sea.

Cast

as Marina *

Vangelis Mourikis Vangelis Mourikis ( el, Βαγγέλης Μουρίκης) is a Greek film actor. He has appeared in more than thirty films since 1982. He studied in Australia where he did his first works. In 1990s he returned to Greece and devoted himself to ind ...

as Spyros * Evangelia Randou as Bella *

Yorgos Lanthimos Georgios "Yorgos" Lanthimos ( el, Γιώργος Λάνθιμος, Giórgos Lánthimos, ; born 23 September 1973) is a Greek film director, film producer, screenwriter, photographer, theatre director and former professional basketball player. Sin ...

as the Engineer

Reception

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensemb ...

, who was head of the Jury for the

, said that the film "grew on us the most, and showed another Greece". Journalist Shane Danielsen called the film "an intellectually rigorous, quietly wrenching Greek drama".

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...

characterised the film as "an angular, complex, absorbing and obscurely troubling movie".

Promotion

A promotional picture for the film, where the tongues of two women meet, was censored on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...

,Kyssande tjejer tas bort från Facebook
, ''

Dagens Nyheter ''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record. History and profile ' ...

'', 6 May 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2011. but Facebook now hosts a profile for the film in which the picture is allowed.Picture on Facebook
from images on the

profile for ''Attenberg''.

Awards

References

External links

Official website

Official Facebook page
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Attenberg 2010 films 2010 drama films 2010s Greek-language films Films set in Greece Greek drama films Films directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari