ATTENBERG

Institute History

  • 2011 Sundance Film Festival

Description

ATTENBERG premiered at the Venice Film Festival, announcing Athina Rachel Tsangari as a daring auteur of an exciting new wave of Greek filmmaking. To help us define our Spotlight section as cinema we love, we are happy to give ATTENBERG its first U.S. platform.
In a small, seaside industrial town, 23-year-old Marina maintains an exceptionally close relationship with her architect father, who is dying of cancer. Her only sexual knowledge comes from her friend Bella, with whom she practices kissing, and she remains an observer of mankind, emulating Sir David Attenborough whose animal programs she enjoys. While preparing for her father’s imminent death, Marina discovers her own sexuality with a visiting engineer.
ATTENBERG embraces the abstract and theatrical in choreographed interludes and wild-animal pantomimes, but provides an essential emotional point of access in the profound father-daughter bond. An unconventional coming-of-age film, ATTENBERG is the story of a girl-woman who comes to terms with sex and death as natural parts of life.

— Kim Yutani

Screening Details

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