Closer Look: Sex Ed in Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg

In adding this new batch of new images to the synopsis and other images we exclusively preemed, Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg is shaping up to be the most curious looking title from this year’s Venice comp – here’s hoping it makes it among the Toronto titles and thus make my future schedule, a little bit edgier. First time actress Ariane Labed toplines the pictures, you have her playing tonsil hockey along with actress Evangelia Randou (Bella). 

Marina, 23, is growing up with her architect father in a prototype factory town by the sea. Finding the human species strange and repellent, she keeps her distance. Instead she stubbornly observes it through the songs of Suicide, the mammal documentaries of Sir David Attenborough, and the sex-ed lessons she receives from her only friend, Bella. A stranger comes to town and challenges her to a foosball duel, on her own table. Her father meanwhile ritualistically prepares for his exit from the 20th century, which he considers to be “overrated.” Caught between the two men and her collaborator Bella, Marina investigates the wondrous mystery of the human fauna.