Set in modern day Athens, The Daughter revolves around 14-year-old Myrto – played brilliantly by actor Savina Alimano – and her quest to find her father, who has disappeared due to unpaid debts. Trying to make sense of the situation at hand, she decides the best thing is to take matters into her own hands by inflicting pain on those she believes have inflicted pain on her. Myrto places the bulk of the blame on her father’s business partner and kidnaps his son Aggelos – Aggelos Papadimas in his debut role – and hides him in her dad’s unused lumber workshop.
What results is a claustrophobic noir-thriller that stays with you, in all its eeriness, long after the film is over. It’s a social drama at its finest as filmmaker Thanos Anastopoulos (The Daughter is his third full length feature) portrays riot stricken Greece and how this situation can make a seemingly normal teenage girl undertake the most heinous acts.
Alimano – who plays the leading role – is disturbing yet also heartbreaking. Armed with the knowledge that it’s only her second feature role, her portrayal of a teenager at a loss, who seems to have no choice but to become the monster, is bewildering.
The movie is mainly shot in the lumber yard, that on one hand provides a claustrophobic, chokening sensation as you fear for the well-being and life of the young boy trapped in this space, but then this is juxtaposed against the vast expanse of the forest that surrounds it. There’s an escape, a chance to leave, but no one is taking it. Athens may appear to be the backdrop to Myrto’s hunt for her dad, but its strikes and riots, dirt and graffiti, are at the forefront of her psychological state and the viewer’s gaze.
A story that unfolds through flashbacks, and a tale that will leave you shell-shocked.
The Daughter is screening as part of the Delphi Bank 20th Greek Film Festival. For tickets and screening times visit www.greekfilmfestival.com