A sexually inexperienced 23-year-old woman named Marina lives with her terminally ill architect father Spyros in an industrial Greek town by the sea, where she works at the local steel mill. Unable to relate to the people she meets, she lives her life through the wildlife documentaries of British broadcaster David Attenborough, the music of American band Suicide, and the sex education lessons given to her by her friend Bella.
Despite her sexual inexperience, Marina's relationships with her father and Bella show warmth and thought. Spyros, contemplative as he approaches death, shares with her how he believes that "man has designed ruins with mathematical accuracy", referring to the destiny of most architecture. But then cynically, he reflects that "We (Greece) went from sheep to bulldozers".
When a stranger comes to town, an engineer who begins a work course at the steel mill, Marina has her first sexual relationship with him. She is secretive but shares her experience first with Spyros, and later with Bella. As Spyros comes closer to death, Marina asks Bella to sleep with her father as a favor for the dying man, who has not been with a woman for a long time.
After Spyros eventually meets his demise, Bella and Marina scatter his ashes over the sea.
Quentin Tarantino, who was head of the Jury for the 67th Venice International Film Festival, said that the film "grew on us the most, and showed another Greece".[3][4] Journalist Shane Danielsen called the film "an intellectually rigorous, quietly wrenching Greek drama".[9]Peter Bradshaw characterised the film as "an angular, complex, absorbing and obscurely troubling movie".[10]
Promotion
A promotional picture for the film, where the tongues of two women meet, was censored on Facebook,[11] but Facebook now hosts a profile for the film in which the picture is allowed.[12]
^ ab"Venezia 67". labiennale.org. 29 July 2010. Archived from the original on 1 August 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
^ abClarke, Cath (18 August 2011). "First sight: Ariane Labed". guardian.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
