Attenberg (2011)

Strong sex scenes

Athina Rachel Tsangari's striking drama, set in a Greek factory town by the sea, follows 23-year-old Marina, an unpredictable creature whose isolated habitat and limited human interaction have led her to mimic the repetitive behaviour of animals featured in the David Attenborough documentaries she so hungrily devours. Her world is shaped by her father, a modernist architect whose health is decaying as if in empathy with the concrete buildings he designed; and by her promiscuous friend Bella, who provides her with kissing lessons and tantalising accounts of her own sexual adventures.

Tsangari (who produced cast member Yorgos Lanthimos' Oscar-nominated Dogtooth, 2009) applies the camera like a magnifying glass, approaching her small sample of human characters with the intense analytical gaze of the film's scientific hero. (The title is a deliberate mispronunciation of Attenborough's name.) Stylistically bold and featuring a finely choreographed performance by Ariane Labed, the film's emotional trajectory intensifies when Marina begins to experiment with desire and is forced to confront her father's mortality.