MPAA Rating: Unrated
Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari
Film Pulse Score: 7/10
Attenberg is the latest in a recent string of bizarre, yet captivating Greek films that explore many aspects of the human condition in some very interesting ways. Like Dogtooth
At it’s heart, this is a coming of age story about a girl, who’s father is dying of cancer, and who is, herself, becoming sexually curious. While making preparations for her father’s inevitable demise, she learns about the opposite sex through her best friend, Bella, and the nature documentaries of Sir David Attenborough.
If you have seen Dogtooth, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory with this one. If you haven’t seen Dogtooth, you will most certainly find yourself severely weird-ed out, and slightly disturbed by this film. The abstract nature of the film turns it into one part narrative feature, and one part performance art piece.
Unfortunately, this concept didn’t work quite as well as it did with Dogtooth. The plot of Attenberg was much more straight forward and grounded than that of Dogtooth, and, as a result, some of the more odd scenes in the film felt slightly tacked on and out of place. That being said, these scenes did add some flavor to an otherwise bland film, and they are really what makes this film shine.
Slow and evenly paced, Attenberg focuses more on showing us wonderfully shot scenes than giving us a truly engrossing story. While it’s easy to relate with the main character’s situation, it’s harder to actually understand the character of Marina herself. Although she’s 23 years old, she tends to act like a child at times, and has a hard time grasping human emotion. One could assume that she has had a sheltered life, or is sexually repressed in some way, but it’s never made clear why she is so odd.
Similarly, it felt like although the entire movie is about love and loss, the characters were thinly developed. Instead of scene after scene of Marina and Bella doing choreographed strolls down a sidewalk, I would like to have seen more back story on these interesting characters.
Considering that this film is written and directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, who was an associate producer on Dogtooth, and the writer and director of Dogtooth, Giorgos Lanthimos, played the engineer, it’s no surprise that Attenberg shares the same style and feel. While not as entertaining, Attenberg still proves that great cinematography, strange scenes, and absurd dialogue can make up for a thin plot.
Some cool notes about this film: all the crazy walking/strutting/dancing sequences are based on mating rituals of animals. The main character in this film is not Greek and does not understand the Greek language, she memorized her part phonetically! Also, about the funeral, in Greek tradition, you are buried for a year and then your bones are exhumed and your life is taken into account depending on how clean your bones are. The decision to use cremation in this film is kind of a political statement. That’s all for fun facts folks!