Attenberg

Written & Directed by: Athina Rachel Tsangari
Full credits at IMDb

This latest addition to the Greek New Wave is about the future—specifically, Greece's unpreparedness for it. News reports have detailed that country's economic troubles, but this film explores some of their underlying causes, digging into cultural generalizations in a way journalism can't. Ariane Labed starts as Bella, an awkward twentysomething maladjusting to society as her father dies from an unspecified ailment. She is sexually inexperienced—the first scene features some of the least erotic making out in movie history, as she attempts to learn kissing from her best and only friend, played by Evangelia Randou—but she's also generally socially ignorant. Writer-director Athina Rachel Tsangari codes her as a child: she skips arm-in-arm with her biffle; they spit out of windows onto the street below and imitate wild beasts. (Bella and her father enjoy David Attenborough nature specials; the film takes its name from a Greek mispronunciation of his name, a twisting of the naturalist as Bella is a twisted bit of nature.)

Keep reading my review at The L Magazine

Watch the trailer: