Part of "Worlds Apart: The Films of Athina Rachel Tsangari," a retrospective of the Greek director's films presented by Acropolis Cinema and MUBI and running from April 17 through mid-May at 2220 Arts + Archives, Vidiots, and the Los Feliz 3
Screening to be followed by a Q&A with Tsangari moderated by Janicza Bravo
In crowded, expensive London, a cash-strapped couple open their small flat to a third person. Gemma is a chef who runs a café; her boyfriend Kieran is a paramedic – and Ray, who moves in with the young couple, is at a loss. Until recently, she was a world-class synchronised swimmer, but now she’s looking for a new direction, job and place in life. She discovers two people who love each other very much, but who don’t really know where they are going – in terms of the café, sex, or their lives. What commences is a modern-day love story that will change all of their lives forever.
Written and created by Duncan Macmillan and Effie Woods, Trigonometry is the first series project by Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg, Chevalier). The Greek director and actress has directed five of the eight episodes, all of which will be screened at today's event. While the rest of the world talks about identity politics, Trigonometry turns this into an intense, compelling, funny and intelligent drama about relationships and family. Can the three characters find a new way to love? And will the world let them? (Berlinale)
TRT: 235 min, 5 episodes with 15 min intermission + post-screening discussion
In person: Athina Rachel Tsangari
*Screening in the MUBI Microcinema; limited tickets available
"This is bracing TV to make you sit up on your sofa." —Ammar Kalia, The Guardian
"It's all sweetly done and fascinating in the way it handles contemporary hipster urban life." —John Doyle, Globe and Mail
"With its storytelling economy and rich sense of character, Trigonometry strikes as a fine love story. But its acute sense of characters bonding despite and indeed largely because of uncertainty gives it a charmingly hopeful slant." —Jonathan Wilson, Ready Set Cut
"Tsangari brings to the first five installments a keen eye for character-based grace notes. Working with DP Sean Price Williams, this core creative team understands the way that all of these pieces fit together and how not to mistake prioritizing one over the other. There’s a particular rhythm to the way that Trigonometry floats around its characters as they’re trying to triangulate their own feelings." —Steve Greene, Indiewire
"A little bite of the sublime... That feeling of an everyday that’s slightly enchanted around the edges—not magic-realist, exactly, but attuned to the possibility of magical-feeling moments—is present in the five episodes of Trigonometry signed by Tsangari, whose transition from cinema to a format succinctly if imperfectly defined as 'prestige television' provides an interesting test case for auteurism." —Adam Nayman, Cinema Scope
(Available to download after screening date)