Synopsis
The story of a man who feels happy only when he is unhappy: addicted to sadness, with such need for pity, that 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.
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Cast
- Giannis DrakopoulosLawyer
- Evi SaoulidouWife
- Costas XikominosNikos
- Pavlos MakridisSon
- Makis PapadimitriouDry clean shop owner
- Nota TserniafskiVictim's daughter
- Georgina ChryskiotiGood neighbor
- Kostas KotoulasGrandpa
- Evdoxia AndroulidakiSecretary
- Viktor ArditisMusic teacher
- 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Through its droll combo of stillness and churning dysfunction, perfectly embodied by Drakopoulos, Pity deconstructs the artifice of feeling and, most wickedly, movie sentimentality. - 87
TheWrap
Miraculously, Makridis doesn’t undercut the seriousness of Giannis’ plight with humor. The laughs derive naturally from Drakopoulos’ pitch-black performance. - 80
Screen Daily
Pity, which Makridis co-wrote with Yorgos Lanthimos’ regular collaborator Efthimis Filippou (Dogtooth, The Lobster), strikes a tonal balance between ruthless and wry, which positions it comfortably alongside the best of Greece’s current new wave. - 70
Variety
If Pity doesn’t quite have the shock of the new on its side, then, its sharpest passages nonetheless exert the bracing, mouth-shuddering tang of neat ouzo: You know how it’s going to taste, but it leaves you wincing anyway. - 58
The Playlist
The film has an identity problem. It’s uncertain what it wants to be. This is too damn bad because its first mode, a parody of male self-obsession, is perfectly satisfying; the comedy makes us shift in our seats, but the shifting is pleasurable, complemented by well-timed gags and a mesmerizingly selfish performance from its leading man, Yannis Drakopoulos.