Rakushka (2004)

A husband whose young wife has committed suicide meets for the first and last time his Russian mother-in-law who has arrived to collect the coffin. A quiet war is declared between them. During the sleepless night, attempting to understand the motives of her sudden act, he recounts in the first person, both accuser and accused, their brief and impossible relationship. In "Rakushka'(the shell), the eighteen years old cellist, Zogia Petrova, an immigrant from Taskent seeks a future in Athens of today. Vassilis, the enigmatic middle-aged pawnbroker, is quickly enchanted when she visits him as a customer. He pursues her and finally she accepts marriage. Very soon their relationship develops a conflict. Vassilis from being her protector he moves to becoming her jailer. Their social, age and cultural gap, his possessiveness, her forced isolation will lead to rebellion, eventually to a state of silent sickness and finally to her fatal decision. With one movement, the "victim" renders the "hunter" harmless and escapes.