A family of five lives in isolation behind the walls of their well-groomed estate. Father drives into town every day to work, but he’s the only one who ever leaves. Mother has access to a telephone, kept hidden.
The Eldest and Youngest, both daughters, and the Son stay home doing chores, swimming in the pool, and playing with the same toys they had as little children.
They are excited to see an airplane fly over, and occasionally, one of them lands in the backyard. This will be a toy plane tossed into the yard by Mother. Whichever child gets to it first gets to keep it.
A serpent enters the garden when Father brings home a security guard named Christina to service the Son on a semi-regular basis, but Christina develops a sexual interest in the Eldest, who then watches some of the guard’s rented videos and turns them into games. In one marvelous scene, she pretends to be a shark in the pool and scares her brother half to death.
The movie, which is nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar, was directed and co-written by Giorgos Lanthimos, and will screen at 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. It’s in Greek, which is ironic because even if it weren’t, it would still be Greek to most people.
Wear your thinking cap and be prepared to argue the meaning of the last shot with Schrödinger’s cat.
