The Capsule

In a palatial mansion perched on a cliff lashed by the sea, six women spend their days repeating absurd rituals orchestrated by an imposing matriarch. In this exquisite “Greek Gothic mystery” (commissioned by the DESTE Foundation for the Deste Fashion Collection 2012 – a project developed simultaneously as a stand-alone film and a window installation at Barneys New York), the cyclical nature of life and the myriad faces of femininity emerge almost animistically from the non-human – from the ruffles of an interactive dress that “springs to life” when touched by light, from an austere black uniform of a dress (directly referencing Michael Cacoyannis’s A Girl in Black), from collars made of fabric or some precious metal: that is, from all we choose to wear on our bodies, things that already belong to the past, giving shape to identities that have been handed down.

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Athina Rachel Tsangari

Script: Athina Rachel Tsangari, Aleksandra Waliszewska

Cinematography: Thimios Bakatakis

Editing: Matt Johnson

Sound: Leandros Ntounis

Actors: Ariane Labed, Isolda Dychauk, Clémence Poésy, Evangelia Randou, Aurora Marion, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Sofia Dona

Production: Haos Film, Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art

Producers: Maria Hatzakou, Kyriakos Karseras, Athina Rachel Tsangari

Costumes: Sandra Backlund, Bordelle, Ying Gao, Cat Potter, Isabelle Vigier, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Vassilia Rozana

Executive producer: Dakis Joannou

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: Greece

Production Year: 2012

Duration: 37'

Contact: Haos Film

Animation: Zina Papadopoulou & Petros Papadopoulos

Athina Rachel Tsangari

Athina Rachel Tsangari is an award-winning filmmaker born in Athens, Greece, considered to be a key pioneer behind the Greek New Wave. Tsangari’s sophomore feature film Attenberg (2010) premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival. In 2015, Chevalier won Best Film at the BFI-London Film Festival. Both films were the Greek submissions for Best International Film at the Oscars. Early in her career Tsangari co-founded Haos Film, a filmmaker-run company and post-production studio based in Athens, Greece. In 2004, Tsangari was the projections designer and video director-producer for the Athens Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies, which won an Emmy Award for Best Live Broadcast. Recently, Tsangari was a Director and Executive Producer on the BBC2/HBO Max series Trigonometry. She has been a jury member in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Sundance and Toronto film festivals, and jury president in Venice (Orizzonti), Götteborg, and BFI London.