Poor Things

Yorgos Lanthimos

Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos directs this incredible tale of the fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation. Also starring Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott and Jerrod Carmichael, “Poor Things” was written by Tony McNamara, based on the book by Alasdair Gray, and produced by Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone.


Nimic

Yorgos Lanthimos

A professional cellist has an encounter with a stranger on the subway which has unexpected and far-reaching ramifications on his life.


Kinetta

Yorgos Lanthimos

The first feature for which celebrated international auteur Yorgos Lanthimos received solo directorial credit, Kinetta takes place in a desolate Greek resort town where three tenuously connected people are motivated by mysterious impulses. A plain-clothes cop pursues triple passions for cars, tape recorders, and Russian women; a lonely, lovesick clerk works as a part-time photographer; and a hotel maid aspires to be an actress through unconventional methods. Never before released in the United States, this darkly comic and insinuatingly hypnotic film comprises the extraordinary solo directorial debut from Lanthimos, whose first three narrative features (Kinetta, Dogtooth, Alps) defined the Greek New Wave before he shifted to English-language films, including Academy Award nominees The Lobster and The Favourite.


Dogtooth

Yorgos Lanthimos

Graceful, enigmatic, and often frightening, DOGTOOTH is an ingenious dark comedy that won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, propelling Yorgos Lanthimos to the forefront of contemporary cinema's most ambitious young filmmakers. In an effort to protect their three children from the corrupting influence of the outside world, a Greek couple transforms their home into a gated compound of cultural deprivation and strict rules of behavior. But children cannot remain innocent forever. When the father brings home a young woman to satisfy his son's sexual urges, the family's engineered "reality" begins to crumble, with devastating consequences. Like the haunting, dystopic visions of Michael Haneke and Gaspar Noé, DOGTOOTH punctuates its compelling drama with moments of shocking violence, creating a biting social satire that is as profound as it is provocative.


Alps

Yorgos Lanthimos

Alps is a mysterious and moving investigation into the process of mourning, a stunningly original follow-up to director Yorgos Lanthimos' Oscar-nominated debut, DOGTOOTH (2009). An oddball group of four people (made up of two hospital employees, a gymnast, and her coach) form a secret society that sets out to ease the grieving process for those whose loved ones have died. For a fee they will act the part of the missing family member, learning their hobbies and eccentricities in order to help the customer accept their loss. As methadone is to heroin addiction, so are the Alps, as they call themselves, to the mourning process. But when the nurse known as Monte Rosa (Aggeliki Papoulia, also in DOGTOOTH) begins to attach too deeply to her subjects, their project spirals out of control into violence and confusion.


The Favourite

Yorgos Lanthimos

In early 18th-century England, a frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her closest friend, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), governs the country while tending to Anne’s health. When new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, Sarah takes Abigail under her wing as she cunningly schemes to return to her aristocratic roots, setting off an outrageous rivalry to become the Queen’s favourite.


The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Yorgos Lanthimos

Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon presiding over a spotless household with his ophthalmologist wife Anna (Nicole Kidman) and their two exemplary children, 12-year-old Bob (Sunny Suljic) and 14-year-old Kim (Raffey Cassidy). Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin (Barry Keoghan), a fatherless teen who Steven has covertly taken under his wing. As Martin begins insinuating himself into the family’s life in ever-more unsettling displays, the full scope of his intent becomes menacingly clear when he confronts Steven with a long-forgotten transgression that will shatter the Murphy family’s domestic bliss. Lanthimos has crafted a sensational thriller brimming with unsettling humor and creeping dread, steeped in Greek tragedy, existential horror, Hitchcockian psychodrama, and riveting suspense. Darting confidently between genres to subvert our expectations at every turn, The Killing of a Sacred Deer firmly cements Lanthimos in the pantheon of world-class auteurs and marks him as a cinematic provocateur without precedent.


The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos

A love story set in the near future where single people, according to the rules of The City, are arrested and transferred to The Hotel. There they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into The Woods. A desperate Man escapes from The Hotel to The Woods where The Loners live and falls in love, although it is against their rules.


Attenberg

Athina Rachel Tsangari

Part of the new wave of Greek cinema, ATTENBERG is an offbeat coming-of-age film. 23-year-old Marina is living in a small, factory town by the sea where her once-visionary architect father, has returned to die. Finding the human species foreign, she keeps her distance, choosing to observe mankind through Sir David Attenborough’s mammal documentaries and the songs of Suicide. While preparing for her father’s impending death, Marina discovers her own sexuality through lessons from her only friend, Bella, and a visiting engineer. Equal parts abstract theater and melodrama, ATTENBERG sincerely and humorously navigates the defining moments in life.