Dir : Athina Rachel Tsangari [2010]
Director Athina Rachel Tsangari worked with Giorgos Lanthimos on last year's much admired Dogtooth, and Attenberg has a similar humour and sexual frankness, though also displays a much lighter touch, giving the impression that Greek cinema could be providing curious delights like this for years to come. Newcomer Ariane Labed gives an exceptional performance which won her the best actress award at Venice this year.
Marina is a disaffected 23 year-old who behaves as if she's far younger than her years. She is obsessed with Alan Vega's Suicide and the natural history films of Sir David Attenborough (the title refers to a mispronunciation of her hero's name). Her best friend Bella shares Marina's sense of playfulness, and indulges in game mimicking animals with her, though she is far more sexually experienced. Indeed, this seems to be a reason for Marina's immaturity; an inability to define her sexual identity, or to decide whether sex is something that interests her at all. She talks with brutal openness about her situation with her father, who is dying from a debilitating illness. Then her head is turned by an engineer staying at a local hotel, and she begins an affair with him, despite appearing to have little in common beyond a shared passion for 'Be Bop Kid'
