Alongside the co-writer of Dogtooth and The Lobster, Efthymis Filippou, Babis Makridis directed Pity. It is uniquely unsettling, a darkly humorous take on the empathy’s need. This 2018 psychological drama is a prime specimen of Greece’s “Weird Wave” cinema containing a plot revolving around sorrow and manipulation that is always in the borderline of both tragic and absurd.
A Trailer Dripping with Deadpan Dread
The dreadful world introduced in the Pity trailer is united by an abundance of the color beige, showcasing a setting thick with silence and grief. A very well put together man, known to be in mourning, stands before the sea with classical music playing in the background. However, there is something bizarrely off about his tempo—his composure too rehearsed and his eyes overly hungry for sympathy. Everything is stark, every image builds an uneasy notion that this man might actually be a masochist. The trailer starts off hinting at tragedy but turns things completely on their head and blends satire so subtle that it bites twice as hard.
Main and Supporting Roles:
Yannis Drakopoulos as The Lawyer
Despite the tearful life narrative he crafted for others, this was a man living in a shadow of loss. The moment his wife sank into a coma, the deafening sympathy surrounding him suddenly became a lifeline. When his wife succumbs to the comatose state and survives, the outpour of sympathy he lived off survives on becomes a deeper crisis. Drakopoulos masterfully portrays him with underlying deadpan detachment, slowly disintegrating…and methodically unwinding.
Evi Saoulidou as The Wife
Her awakening from a coma, which should be celebrated, completely screws up the equilibrium that her husband had come to depend on throughout his life. In actuality, she serves as a grim harbinger that makes sure to wake everyone in the world—real or otherwise—out of their grief stricken slumber.
Makis Papadimitriou as Dry Clean Shop Owner
One of the lawyer’s many stereotypical role, whose brief and rather mundane dealings showcase some more complex inter character changes in mood and manner which become markers of the lawyer’s increasing desperation.
Nota Tserniafski as Victim’s Daughter
A neglect minor role in a feature film, her story is entwined with that of the disintegrating morality of the lawyer in focus.
Storytelling Synposes
The focus of the tale is a middle aged lawyer, whose life appears orderly. However, very much like the calm before a storm, his world seems to come crashing down when his wife falls into a coma. Diligent routines like morning runs, jogging, commuting to the office, and meeting friends go on, despite the overwhelming grief that looms over him. Here, the man does not simply somberly get through his day. Instead a far more complex pulling force guides him to relish in concerned glances and gentle pats on the back that he receives from not just acquaintances but even complete strangers. The warmth extends beyond the gesture. In a twisted manner, deep sympathy transforms into a powerful motivating force for the man.
His world comes crashing down first when his wife recovers from the coma. Normality shifts the sympathy floods towards the woman, leaving the man devoid of any emotional support. With the man succumbing deeper into self pitied trauma, grief transforms into a tragic masterpiece of artificial pain that one fabricates in their head, only to desire further pity, frail love, and misery.
The film focuses on evolving social systems and how people designate themselves in pity along with external aids needed to have a monotonous yet flexible string of existence that binds together the tension of life. Reflecting the classic works of world renowned authors, Pity is no different, posing unending questions alongside a mental breakdown. Attention shifts from grief turning into addiction, authenticity of empathy, and the race towards being masked and seen as a frail victim watching from a distance.
Writing under AI detection tools enabled creating a piece of intriguing display of creative contradictions by extracting synchronous love and pity bestowed on one specifically during times of dire need while confronting the absurd nature of harsh reality.