PITY

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 Makridis
    Babis Makridis
    Greece

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

Babis Makridis
Greece

Greek director, writer and producer born in 1970. Studied in the Stavrakos Film School. His short film THE LAST FAKIR was awarded to a newcomer’s prize at Drama Short Film Festival in Greece. His first feature debiut was L from 2012 nominated to Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival and Tiger Award in Rotterdam International Film Festival.

FILMOGRAPHY
2017 Pity, feature
2012 L
2010 The Last Fakir, short