Attenberg is about Marina, a young woman living in a small coastal town who is infatuated with synth-pop band Suicide and the documentaries of Richard Attenborough. Despite help from her father and close friend Bella she struggles to understand the rituals of human interactions, attempting to make sense of her relationships with the same detached manner demonstrated by her favourite naturalist.
Shot in long, uninterrupted takes, this clinical examination of sex and death intrigues and mystifies in equal measures.
Director Athina Rachel Tsangari conjures some playful touches – animal imitations; Marina and friend Bella’s synchronised walks – but this clinically shot oddity ultimately mystifies.
Eventually, the film runs out of weirdness, but Labed is terrific.
Tsangari proves she's one of the freshest voices in European cinema with this offbeat character piece. Recommended.
Intelligent, inventive and incredibly engaging.
Attenberg is an intriguing film, composed with real visual flair. It will be fascinating to see what Tsangari, Lanthimos et al produce next.
Attenberg is needling, idiosyncratic - and fascinating.
Perhaps viewed under the influence of drugs or drink the film might spring to comic life, but taken straight it is far more likely to get on your nerves.
Deadpan in tone, the film's absurdist musings can be read as a meditation on the extent to which social norms ensure sex and death remain uncomfortable topics despite being part of the natural order of things. But its approach is a little too wilfully tedious to fully embrace.
While amusing scenes of Marina and Bella squawking like pelicans are at times too repetitive and predictable, the jerky narrative creates an edgy storyline which could fall into tragedy at any moment.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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