jollylolly this movie is heavy and dragging, almost painful to watch. forcing myself to continue watching, and 30mins before the movie ended, everything started to make sense. i regret watching this movie. a total waste of time.definitely not a thriller, more to a drama, with minimal dialogues and i was left wondering why why why, yep until the last 30mins of the movie.

christopher-underwood Sometimes it occurs to me I should be concerned at some of the films that Amazon recommends to me on the basis of my known preferences and this one probably beats them all. It is a very, very good film but I wouldn't truly recommend it to anyone. At least not someone I didn't know very well and could be sure that they could deal with the worryingly believable and atrocious basis of this film. It begins innocuously enough with a daughter's eleventh birthday. And yet wasn't I slightly perturbed at the flat and colourless surroundings, the spooky lack or gaiety, the fact they were dancing to a Leonard Cohen track? And the way the 'father' held his daughter? Almost immediately there is a most dramatic incident and then we are taken back to a measured family routine where everything is under control and we get drawn further into this only seeming innocuous family. There are truly dreadful events represented here and although most of this gradually dawns upon the viewer during the course of the film there are a couple of openly distressing scenes. There is no attempt to set this awful business in the past and we can only guess at how surprising this depiction is to a Greek audience, if indeed it had a theatrical release. People and glass houses and all that so I will say no more other than that maybe we in the UK need such a brave film maker to look further into some of our more murky corners that are, similarly, maybe not too far from home.

grybop The movie can be seen as an allegory that utilizes what seems like an impossible plot to make some points about a patriarchal family system, that's ever so common in Greece (surely in other places, too).I'm Greek myself and several of the situations the characters face in the movie are very familiar to me. The father enjoys ultimate and unquestionable respect by the members of the family. The mother stays passive, her role confined mostly to everyday chores. The kids are obedient little soldiers. Any thought of rebellion is suppressed by deep fear. These are all things I've witnessed and heard of myself, from friends and relatives. I remember various incest rape cases having surfaced through the years - they still do.Avranas took his story to the extremes, to point out how rotten the institution we call the "holy Greek family" is. The apartment door is locked. To a patriarch, it doesn't matter what happens behind it, as long as it stays there. It's his family after all. What matters is his own face to society, to keep up appearances. What matters is the surface, not the substance.I've heard so many women in my life saying "Oh yes, he may beat his wife up, but at least he doesn't cheat on her!" or "He may cheat on her, but he always provides food for his family!" What is pictured in the movie is the continued victimization of the female. The woman is rendered to an object for pleasure, for cooking, for cleaning, anything to satisfy the primary male in the family. The father must be obeyed and respected at all times, even though he's an unemployed middle aged man who can't provide much to his family - and this will not be questioned either: he's the MAN. It's so deeply ironic that the song he forces his little girl to dance to is, in fact, feminist at best, and a hymn to misandry at worst (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwbYEOKzBYo).The females have learned to accept their degradation as something normal. The oldest daughter feels numb, not being able to wake up to reality. Her kids, her own brother and sister apparently, she knows will go down the same road themselves. When one of them understands the true nature of her family relationships, she commits suicide. Again, the family's priority is to save face - it was an accident, not a suicide.This attitude, so prevalent in Greece until recently, is what I believe is the director's target here. Some scenes may be hard to watch, but he didn't really cross the line that much, or as far as he could have. From the moment I realized what was going on, the story made sense on so many levels, I was really at awe with what the director accomplished: a film that's both a psychological thriller and a cold, yet in-depth cultural study.

olastensson13 11-year-old girl jumps from the balcony and is killed at her birthday. Why? We finally will find out exactly why she did it, but we have to pass through hell first.Forget all the cheap scary tricks you know from common horror movies. The threat here is real. There are no surprises, no jump scenes, just constant darkness with a family tyrant as its source. Hopelessness for sure, but in an environment which is quite common.Greece performs a film wonder at the moment. Dark forces meet the surface and there's no need for the supernatural or lots of splatter and gore. There are worse things than that in daily life.