Pity 2018

Drama

Rank

#26,292

Box Office

$65K

Runtime

97 mins

Language

Greek

Made by

Faliro House Productions

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Pity Plot Summary

Read the complete plot summary and ending explained for Pity (2018). From turning points to emotional moments, uncover what really happened and why it matters.

A lawyer Costas Xikominos who is severely addicted to sadness is in a desperate need of pity, and he goes to great lengths to evoke it from others. His wife Evi Saoulidou lies in a coma after an accident, and friends and neighbors rally around him to offer comfort during her slow convalescence. Meanwhile, he takes on a new job helping two siblings whose father was brutally killed, and he carefully examines the dynamics of the murder, using the same emotional pull he craves to study the case.

When the wife miraculously emerges from the coma, he finds the pity he depended on is fading away. To keep the emotion flowing, he fabricates the impression that she remains unconscious, a lie he clings to until the truth can no longer be hidden. He then sets out to manufacture sorrow for himself: first by abandoning his pet dog in the middle of the sea. When that plan fails to produce tears, he intensifies his actions. Drawing on the same manipulative logic from the murder investigation, he ends up killing his father, his wife, and his own son. Yet even with these grave acts, he cannot cry. In the end, only the dog survives, swimming back to the shore.

Pity Timeline

Follow the complete movie timeline of Pity (2018) with every major event in chronological order. Great for understanding complex plots and story progression.

Pity-seeking lawyer in crisis

A lawyer is deeply addicted to sadness, craving pity from others. His wife lies in a coma after an accident, and friends and neighbours do everything they can to comfort him, while he remains emotionally distant. The emotional supply of others becomes the central fuel of his life.

City apartment

New murder-case assignment

He starts a new job helping two siblings whose father was brutally killed. He studies the case closely, tracing motives and family dynamics to map out the murder. The task also becomes a laboratory for the very dynamics of sorrow he craves to evoke.

Siblings' home

Wife awakens from the coma

The wife miraculously comes out of the coma, shocking those around them. The sudden revival exposes the fragility of the pity narrative he’s been feeding on. He faces the reality that his emotional supply is no longer guaranteed.

Hospital

The lie about the wife’s status

He begins telling people his wife is still unconscious to preserve the pity he depends on. Friends and neighbours accept the story, while the truth gnaws at him. Eventually, he recognizes that maintaining the lie isn’t sustainable.

Neighborhood/social circle

A plan to evoke deeper sorrow

Convinced that the pity is fading, he decides to inflict pain on a grand scale. He first abandons his pet dog in the middle of the sea, hoping this extreme act will trigger the emotional response he desires.

Sea

The dog abandonment

He executes the act of leaving the dog at sea, aiming to provoke pity from others. The movie does not immediately reveal the dog's fate, as the focus shifts back to the moral and emotional collapse of the lawyer. The act marks a turning point toward lethal extremes.

Sea

Killing his father

Employing the same psychological dynamics as the case he’s studying, he murders his father. The act is carried out in the family space and mirrors the investigative principles he uses on the murder case. It serves as a grim step in his escalation toward total destruction.

Father’s home

Killing his wife

Driven by the same need to manufacture sorrow, he takes the life of his wife. The act unfolds within the walls of the home, intensifying the personal tragedy he tries to stage for others. The emotion he seeks remains elusive even as the crime dominates the scene.

Home

Killing his son

Continuing the pattern of his calculated grief, he kills his own son. The violence compounds the ruin left in the wake of the earlier killings and deepens the moral emptiness surrounding him. The story makes clear the crime spree is an attempt to force tears that never come.

Home

Still unable to cry

Despite the chain of murders, the lawyer remains unable to cry. The pity he seeks has vanished, leaving him hollow and detached from the consequences of his actions. Friends and colleagues confront the chilling gap between surface emotion and inner reality.

Home

The dog’s survival and return

In the end, the dog is the sole survivor. It swims back to shore, a silent witness to the carnage and the emptiness of human sorrow. The narrative closes on the irony that the dog, not the man, survives the attempt to provoke pity.

Sea shore

Pity Characters

Explore all characters from Pity (2018). Get detailed profiles with their roles, arcs, and key relationships explained.

Nikos (Costas Xikominos)

A lawyer consumed by sadness who treats pity as a social currency. He uses calculated displays of sorrow to influence others and deepens his involvement in the murder case. Despite outward control, he remains unable to cry, revealing a profound personal void.

💔 Grief 🧠 Calculated 🤝 Manipulative

Wife (Angeliki Papoulia)

A woman in a coma whose condition elicits widespread sympathy from friends and neighbors. Her vulnerability becomes the trigger for the community’s supportive responses and ultimately unsettles the protagonist’s façade once she awakens.

💖 Care 🫂 Vulnerability 🏥 Illness

Son (Pavlos Makridis)

The couple’s young son, whose presence intensifies the family tragedy as the story spirals toward violence. His role underscores the personal stakes and the toll of the protagonist’s manipulations on innocent life.

👶 Family 🌀 Tragedy 🗡️ Violence

Victim's Daughter (Nota Cherniavsky)

The daughter of the brutally killed man, a figure who embodies the ongoing impact of the crime on the next generation. She represents both innocence and a continuing thread of grief within the community.

🧒 Witness 💔 Grief 🧭 Aftermath

Good Neighbor (Georgina Chryskioti)

A neighbor drawn into the family’s crisis, reflecting the social pressure, judgment, and collective response of the local community to tragedy.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Community 🏘️ Neighbour 🗣️ Gossip

Nurse (Marissa Triantafyllidou)

A hospital nurse who tends to the wife, illustrating the routine care that frames the drama. She quietly witnesses the shifting currents of sympathy and the mounting tension in the household.

🏥 Care 🧼 Professional 🕊️ Compassion

Secretary (Evdoxia Androulidaki)

A hospital secretary who manages information flow and interacts with the family, grounding the hospital setting within the broader emotional landscape of pity.

👩‍💼 Office 🗒️ Admin 🗣️ Communication

Grandpa (Kostas Kotoulas)

An older presence in the neighborhood who contributes a traditional perspective and a sense of continuity amid the upheaval.

👴 Elder 🛡️ Protector 🗣️ Voice

Dry Clean Shop Owner (Makis Papadimitriou)

A local shop owner who interacts with the family and neighbors, adding texture to the fabric of everyday life around the tragedy.

🧼 Small Biz 🗨️ Local 🧺 Everyday

Music Teacher (Viktor Arditis)

A character who provides a moment of normalcy through music, offering a contrast to the film’s dark core and enriching the social milieu in which the drama unfolds.

🎶 Education 🧭 Culture 🎭 Art

Pity Settings

Learn where and when Pity (2018) takes place. Explore the film’s settings, era, and how they shape the narrative.

Location

Home, Hospital, Sea

The story unfolds in a contemporary urban setting, centered on a family home. Key locations include the hospital where the wife lies in a coma, the intimate domestic space of the couple, and the sea where the dog is abandoned. The neighborhood environment acts as a backdrop for the social dynamics of sympathy, rumor, and moral pressure.

🏠 Home 🏥 Hospital 🌊 Sea

Pity Themes

Discover the main themes in Pity (2018). Analyze the deeper meanings, emotional layers, and social commentary behind the film.

💔

Grief

A lawyer obsessed with being pitied navigates personal tragedy as a currency. The wife's coma becomes a stage for others' sympathy, while the husband manipulates appearances to prolong the performance of sorrow. The film examines how grief can be exploited to control others and validate one’s own sense of self.

🧠

Moral Decay

The protagonist's relentless pursuit of pity pushes ethical boundaries into self-destruction. Lies become a currency, and the line between truth and fabrication collapses as violence emerges from the need for compassion. The narrative reveals the fragility of social morality under extreme personal pressure.

🐕

Consequences

The escalation from deception to murder culminates in a catastrophic breakdown of family bonds. The lone survivor is a dog, highlighting innocence amid human wreckage and prompting reflection on mercy and fate. The ending invites contemplation of what pity costs those who seek it.

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Pity Spoiler-Free Summary

Discover the spoiler-free summary of Pity (2018). Get a concise overview without any spoilers.

In a stark, still‑minded world where joy feels foreign, a solitary lawyer discovers that his only gateway to feeling alive is the ache of sorrow. Costas Xikominos has learned to measure his existence by the depth of the pity he can draw from those around him, turning melancholy into a strange kind of sustenance. The film unfolds with a quiet, almost clinical tone, inviting the audience to watch a man who seems to thrive on the very emotions most people flee.

The fragile balance of his life tilts when his wife slips into a lingering coma after a tragic accident. Evi Saoulidou becomes both the object of his desperate yearning for compassion and a silent witness to his emotional calculus. Friends, neighbors, and strangers gather, offering comfort that feeds his hidden dependency, while the quiet hum of the hospital corridors reflects the tension between genuine concern and his covert hunger for grief.

Amid this personal turbulence, his professional world pulls him into a fresh, unsettling case involving two siblings reeling from a violent loss. As a lawyer, he approaches the mystery with the same probing intensity that fuels his need for emotional resonance, using his legal mind to dissect human pain while quietly hoping the investigation will supply the sorrow he craves. The courtroom and the home become intersecting stages where his inner turmoil plays out in subtle, unsettling ways.

The atmosphere is one of muted melancholy brushed with an unsettling curiosity, as the story whispers about the lengths a person might go to sustain a feeling that defines them. The film teeters between stark realism and an almost lyrical examination of dependency, leaving the audience to wonder how far a soul can stretch in pursuit of the very sorrow it cannot live without.