Miss Violence

Miss Violence is a 2013 Greek psychological thriller film directed and written by Alexandros Avranas. The plot revolves around a family whose young granddaughter mysteriously committed suicide. The film was nominated upon its release for 8 Hellenic Film Academy Awards, winning 2: for Best Actor (Themis Panou) and Best Supporting Actress (Renni Pittaki). It also won the Aluminum Horse for Best Script at the Stockholm International Film Festival.

Plot
On her eleventh birthday party, Angeliki commits suicide by jumping off the balcony of her family's apartment. The incident thoroughly affects the family members, consisting of the unnamed Father and Mother, their elder daughter and Angeliki's mother Eleni, their 14 year-old younger daughter Myrto, and Eleni's two other younger children, Philippos and Alkmini. The police investigates and asks them whether Angeliki may had suffered domestic trauma, but the family says that Angeliki's death was an accident to avoid suspicion.

Despite their publicly modest demeanor, all the children behave uncomfortably when the Father is present, who attempts to bring back normalcy to the family following the incident. The Father appears friendly towards his neighbors and colleagues, hiding his abusive, oppressive and misogynistic views towards his children and grandchildren at home. The family is not allowed to deny the Father's instructions nor could they show emotions such as sadness, and Eleni is chastised by her father for secretly mourning her daughter. The Mother, meanwhile, helplessly colludes with her husband to follow his commands out of fear for her husband's wrath. The Father degrades Philippos for causing trouble at school and being inferior in intelligence to his sister Alkmini. Myrto tries to reach out to her teacher to no avail.

The father is revealed to be forcing Eleni and Myrto to dabble in prostitution in exchange for money, with the father regularly joining in raping his own daughters. Eleni's ordeals resulted in her three children, while Myrto is implied to also be Eleni's child conceived by her father. Myrto copes with her abuse by self-harming but her complicit Mother instead covers it up. Myrto is revealed to have previously told Angeliki she and Eleni were both first sold into sex by their father when they turned eleven, as that is considered by their patriarch as the appropriate age to commence sexual violence towards them; this led to Angeliki taking her own life to avoid her fate.

The Father accompanies Eleni to a gynecologist who confirms that she is pregnant again, but Eleni refuses to tell who the father of her baby is. Myrto is later fetched from school by her father and brought to be gang raped by two paying customers before her father rapes her as well. Alkmini is later sold by her grandfather to a pedophile for sex. After seeing her traumatized granddaughter turn to Eleni for comfort, the Mother kills her husband in bed.

The next day, Eleni discovers her Father dead, and she rejoices at her freedom. Once in the kitchen, however, she sees Myrto, Philippos, and Alkmini falling in line in front of the Mother, who assumes control now that her husband is dead. The Mother orders Eleni to lock the door and Eleni complies.

Cast

 * Themis Panou as Father
 * Reni Pittaki as Mother
 * Eleni Roussinou as Eleni
 * Sissy Toumasi as Myrto
 * Maria Skoula as a social welfare lady
 * Constantinos Athanasiades as Philippos
 * Kalliopi Zontanou as Alkmini
 * Chloe Bolota as Angeliki
 * Rafika Chawishe as a civil status servant

Reception
Miss Violence entered the competition at the 70th Venice International Film Festival. Avranas won the Silver Lion for Best Director and actor Themis Panou won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. It was also shown at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival. It is a Faliro House Productions and Plays2place Productions film.

Critical response
The film received mostly positive reviews and was selected for the Fedeora prize for the best film from the Mediterranean region, while Greek director Alexandros Avranas was given the Silver Lion for Best Director for his work. On Rotten Tomatoes, Miss Violence holds an approval rating 81%, with an weighted average score of 6.10. The website hosts 21 international critic reviews.