Plot
A group of people start a business where they impersonate the recently deceased in order to help their clients through the grieving process.

Release Year: 2011

Rating: 6.4/10 (707 voted)

Director: Giorgos Lanthimos

Stars: Stavros Psyllakis, Aris Servetalis, Johnny Vekris

Storyline
A group of people start a business where they impersonate the recently deceased in order to help their clients through the grieving process.

Writers: Giorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou

Cast:
Stavros Psyllakis -
Aris Servetalis -
Johnny Vekris -
Ariane Labed -
Aggeliki Papoulia -
Erifili Stefanidou -

Taglines: When the end is here the Alps are near.

Release Date: 27 October 2011

Technical Specs

Runtime: Greece: 93 min

User Review

In praise of altruism

Rating: 10/10

The title Alps refers to a fairly mysterious secret society of the same name in Yorgos Lanthimos' follow up to the hugely successful Dogtooth. I entered the film not knowing much about it, and I think that's the best way for the movie to unfold for you, as a mystery. I think mystery in general is Lanthimos' best gift here, Alps is a movie that really lets you take your own view, leaves pieces of the jigsaw out and sparks all sorts of different thoughts. I think I also felt that there's a seedling of hope and compassion in the movie amongst an existential debris of pragmatic, valueless and selfish individuals, which to my mind makes it a lighter experience than Dogtooth (although most critics have said otherwise). I think it's sad that, what I think are quite serious films, are mainly sold by relating to their shock or comedy value. The sequel-itis contagion requires a sequel to be darker, so to some extent people have spun this film as Dogtooth 2 - RABID! There's an aesthetic inversion in the sense that Lanthimos has Dogtooth containing characters trying to escape from an artificial environment, and in Alps characters are trying to create them. They're both about "existential malaise", but other than that, perhaps should be treated quite separately.

"Winter swimmers never feel the cold." is a phrase that comes up in the movie. I think that a lot of folk here have got inured to soulless living. The people who the society focus on live out the past, and only value others in terms of what they can give to them, or how they make them feel, they're devoid of altruism. As in Dogtooth there's scenes of characters apeing iconic dream factory roles, the folks here are small compared to the objects of their obsession. People are trying so hard to be better than others, that they end up alone.

Difficult to talk exactly about the movie without spoilers, but I think my take was that the main message is that redemption comes via self-sacrifice, that people should grow up and be adults (western societies have pushed back the assuming of adulthood later and later). As in Dogtooth, there's a specifically Grecian comment about the old feeding off the young (though perhaps this will resonate elsewhere).

The character that I want to hug is Monte Rosa (Aggeliki Papoulia), I think she takes a beautiful journey, the journey to altruism.

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