Films

Athens, 1995 — It's been nearly a decade since behavioral scientists were banned from conducting animal experiments aimed at decoding human love and connection. At their country estate, over the course of three days, Mary's parents subject her suitor to a relentless battery of tests and trials, determined to assess whether he truly deserves her. As time wears on, the tests grow increasingly brutal and unthinkable. Dennis Iliadis, the Greek director who brought us the 2009 remake of Wes Craven's “The Last House on the Left,” directs this psychological thriller that, amid occasional flashes of black comedy, lays bare the perversion of science and psychology as tools of control used to dissect fate and manipulate chance. In search of a formula for a happy ending, man makes plans — and God laughs.