PITY
Oίκτος
Directed by Babis Makridis
Greece, Poland | 2018 | 99 min | black comedy | Greek
The story of a man who feels happy only when he is unhappy, a man addicted to sadness, who has such need for pity, he’s willing to do everything to evoke it from others. This is the life of a man in a world not cruel enough for him.
co-writer: Efthimis Filippou (Dogtooth, The Killing of a Sacred Deer).
Cast & Crew
Director: Babis Makridis
Screenplay: Efthimis Filippou, Babis Makridis
Cinematography: Konstantinos Koukoulios
Editing: Yannis Chalkiadakis
Cast: Yannis Drakopoulos (Lawyer), Evi Saoulidou (Wife), Nota Tserniafski (Sister), Makis Papadimitriou (Dry Cleaner Owner), Georgina Chryskioti (Neighbor), Evdoxia Androulidaki (Secretary), Nikos Karathanos (Brother)
Babis MakridisGreece
Festivals & Awards
Sundance Film Festival – World Dramatic Competition
IFF Rotterdam – Big Screen Competition
Luxembourg FF – Special Mention
Odessa Film Festival – Best Film, Best Director
Shanghai Film Festival – competition
Filmski Festival Herceg Novi – Montenegro Film Festival – Best Film & Best Actor
Valletta film Festival – Best Director
Torino – FIPRESCI
press quotes
A disturbing and oftentimes very funny satire-drama.
Rogerebert.com
The laughs derive naturally from Drakopoulos’ pitch-black performance.
There’s a rhyme and reason to Makridis’ cinematic request.
The Wrap
as-Greek- as-it- gets black comedy.
“Pity”, keeps the tone and pace austere, its stray lunges of overt gallows humor sticking like a knife between the ribs.
elegantly conceived and perversely compelling
Variety
An eye-catching central performance from comedian Yannis Drakopoulos, which combines deadpan, almost Keatonesque absurdity with spikes of utter malevolence.
Screen International
Propelled by the winningly odd deadpan performance of Yannis Drakopoulos (Chevalier), the film is an art-house natural that won’t need anyone’s pity after its Sundance premiere.
As stylized as Makridis’ second feature is, it’s grounded in recognizable behavior, and its sly, dry playfulness reverberates with fascinating questions about emotions and how we portray them.
Pity deconstructs the artifice of feeling and, most wickedly, movie sentimentality.
THR
Makridis and his co-writer and friend Efthimis Filippou create a parallel universe that shares many similarities with reality, although it is much bleaker and funnier.
Cineuropa
