Attenberg
2010 · Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari
Original language: Greek
- drama
The story
Marina, 23, is growing up with her architect father in a prototype factory town by the sea. Finding the human species strange and repellent, she keeps her distance...that is until a stranger comes to town and challenges her to a foosball duel, on her own table. Her father, meanwhile, ritualistically prepares for his exit from the 20th century, which he considers to be "overrated."
What it’s like
Static, deadpan compositions dominate: long takes framed head-on in a bleached, washed-out seaside industrial town, with flat daylight, muted concrete greys and beige, and a sense of an unfinished modern landscape. The camera rarely moves, and the performers hold stillness and then break it with sudden, goofy physicality, including a famously stiff, animal-like dance and the odd bluntly erotic moment. Sound is sparse: clanking factory hum, wind, a few plucked or retro instrumental cues, and long silences that let awkward pauses sit. The vibe is dry, absurd, and quietly melancholic, the kind of cool detachment that softens into tenderness, best suited to a late-night watch alone or a patient, slightly strange afternoon. Pacing is slow and episodic, and the emotional arc follows a young woman who keeps the world at arm's length slowly and reluctantly opening up, while her father confronts his own mortality with unsentimental calm. Intensity is low to moderate: frank nudity and sexual content, some bodily and illness-related discomfort, and a death handled with restraint rather than gore. For viewers who like deadpan European arthouse, odd humour, and grief expressed through awkwardness rather than tears.
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