Social commentary

One can find a lot of interesting interpretations regarding this movie in the discussions here (apart from the thread discussing whether this movie is catering to kiddie porn - let me just say that I strongly disagree with this notion and that you could say that about any film dealing with a controversial subject, i.e. that it encourages the wrong people).

But let me add a different aspect (patriarchy, pedophilia granted):

We see the family living a modest, but decent life-style (the flat, clothes, car, furniture, food etc.), although the father (in his 50s unable to find a new, permanent job) is out of work and no other family member is working. They totally depend on social welfare (which is mentioned several times). How can they afford it ?

If you consider the economic development of Greece during the last decade (just follow the news), you see a constant decline, budget cuts in every respect (especially social welfare and pensions). The government is forced to reduce all its grants due to coercion by the IMF, the European Union and other international institutions.

Let's assume the father had a job as an accountant ten years ago, a decent income and the family led a moderate, but comfortable life. What is he to do after losing his job and since government benefits will not be sufficient to keep up this life-style (if he does not want to end up in poverty or rob a bank) ?

(For further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_government-debt_crisis)

In my view the question asked by the film (among others) is: What would a "decent" family man do, to what lengths would he go to guarantee an adequate life for his family? And the answer - disgusting as it is - is very obvious: prostituting his daughters.

Do not misunderstand this as an apology for the father's behavior and decisions (they are unquestionably disgusting), but as an attempt to see the motivation behind his behavior and the stoic attitudes of the whole family (i.e. the (grand)mother and the two eldest daughters who are aware of what is going on): it is not simply patriarchy or pedophilia (although these are important aspects), but the knowledge that their life style could not be kept up without another form of "income") and thus a criticism of the politics that were imposed on the Greek government by international monetary institutions.

To sum up: How far would you go under these circumstances ?

I hope I expressed my view in an appropriate way and will not be misunderstood as apologetic of the father's behavior. But I think it might be a different aspect the director could have had in mind.

Nali*

PS: I interpret the last scene this way: The (grand)mother holds a family council. What are we to do now ? How can we keep up our life-style? What are our options? What are alternatives ? And the depressing answer might be that they agree to go on doing voluntarily what they had been forced to do before by the father.