A couple with three children, two daughters and a son, live in a villa with an outdoor swimming pool and wide lawns; a high wall runs around the grounds. The children have never been beyond the wall - they are only allowed there, their parents tell them, when they have lost a canine tooth. They speak Greek to each other, but the words always refer to something else: zombie means a yellow flower, keyboard means the female sex, and so on. The only person from the world beyond the wall that the children get to see is Christina, who actually works as an object guard in her father's company, but also relieves the son's loin pressure. Things get complicated when Christina gets involved with the older daughter and has her watch two videos, Jaws (1975; directed by Steven Spielberg) and Rocky (1976; directed by John G. Avildsen) - the latter makes a powerful impression on her ...
One is reminded of Marco Ferreri (La grande bouffe, 1973) by the perfectly sustained grotesque tone, ditto Nikos Nikolaidis, whose fascination for absurd rituals, which are usually acted out in a huis clos-situation. The decisive factor is that Giorgos Lanthimos' trailblazer looks and feels like no movie ever has before.
