Greek Cinema Review is organised in collaboration with



The contemporary cinema of Greece, though fruitful and dynamically developing thanks to initiatives of Greek Film Centre and international co-productions, remains barely known in Poland and poorly exposed at international film festivals. The Greek Cinema Review aims to bring that part of European film production closer to attendants of PLUS CAMERIMAGE Film Festival. The Greek program will consist of six titles from the last ten years, presenting the most interesting ideas and the most contemporary themes of Greek cinema.

Savage Mediterranean coasts, magnificent mountain landscapes, picturesque little towns – this must be a cinematographer’s heaven. However, our choice of contemporary Greek films contains a lot more than this easy appreciation for folklore. Greece a few decades ago – folk customs and a traditional system of values together with beautiful landscapes are the background of passionate tales. Humor, drama and mystery exist here side by side. The country’s stormy history is a frequent context for a plot often provoking twists of events.

Nostalgic feelings are combined with attempts to verify social and ideological myths. Therefore, reckoning with history – both its political and local, more personal dimension – seems to be a significant element of Greek films. Examples of this theme can be found in such films as: Well Kept Secrets – Athanasia FIPRESCI awarded in Thessaloniki 2008, and a laureate of three Berlinale awards Four Seasons of the Law.

At the same time, Greek cinema does not lack images of today. Contemporary stories, frequently escaping from beautiful landscapes into a city labyrinth, enriched with a drop of existential meaning, might surprise viewers with their unconventional presentation of subjects and brave formal solutions. Our review proves this by such films as a bitter-sweet musical Dying in Athens (2006).

The Greek Cinema Review at Plus Camerimage 2009 is a unique occasion to take a look at the contemporary Greek cinema from a wide perspective and learn about the present condition of film in the motherland of master Cacoyannis and provocative Costa-Gavras.




DUST (I skoni pou pefti)

director: Tassos Psarras
cinematographer: Nikos Kavoukidis
year: 2004

Chronis, a successful journalist in his fifties, lives a relatively comfortable life in Athens with his wife and two children. Chronis’ father, who was a schoolteacher, was called up in the years of the Greek civil war and fought as an officer in the reserves with the forces of the regular army against the rebels. In the course of the fighting his father disappeared and at the end of the war he was recognized as having “died in the service of his country”, and his family was granted a pension and certain other privileges enjoyed by families of war victims. Suddenly, one night as Chronis and his wife are indifferently watching television, he sees his father fighting on the side of the rebels in the archival footage of a historical documentary on the civil war.



DYING IN ATHENS (Pethainontas stin Athina)

director: Nikos Panayotopoulos
cinematographer: Aris Stavrou
year: 2006

A middle-aged man is diagnosed with acute leukemia. During his last few months, he tries to face up to the truth and lies that have haunted him throughout his life. His great three loves (wife and mistresses) mutually decide to stand by him to the end. Do they really want to help him or are they intent on revenge? A tender, melancholic and humorous summary of life. A serious theme in a frivolous form.





EDUART

director: Angeliki Antoniou
cinematographer: Jürgen Jürges
year: 2006

Eduart, a young man, raised in a cruel and oppressive family environment, leaves Albania with the dream of becoming a rock star and living a better life. However, his reckless character leads him to commit a murder in Athens. Because of a robbery he had committed before, he gets imprisoned in Albania under the harshest conditions. Eduart, assisting the German doctor of the prison, learns to feel sympathy for others and guilt for his crime. Like the Dostoevskian hero, Raskolnikov, Eduart passes from crime to punishment. Can Eduart be redeemed?




FOUR SEASONS OF THE LAW (I earini sinaxis ton agrofilakon)

director: Dimos Avdeliodis
cinematographer: Odysseus Pavlopoulos, Alekos Yannaros, Linos Meytanis, Sotiris Perreas,
year: 1999

The island of Chios, 1960. Following a sudden death of a local rural guard, the council of the village of Tholopotamos put pressure on the district agronomist to appoint a new man in the place of the deceased. The available rural guards refuse to go to this village, which has a bad reputation, and where their colleague died in the line of duty. When the village of Tholopotamos resubmits its request and, what’s more, offers a financial incentive, four of them volunteer for the post. The agronomist appoints and subsequently dismisses one after another when each of the four fails in his mission.




PANDORA

director: Yiorgos Stamboulopoulos
cinematographer: Kostis Gikas
year: 2006

Vassilis is in his sixties. As he wanders in the dilapidated house where he was brought up by Kostis – his father’s brother – his mind floods with memories of a time long-gone. The early 1950s, the aftermath of the Civil War. Vassilis’s father, Manos, was still in exile when a Greek-American woman, Pandora, descended on the village unexpectedly. Like her mythological namesake, she too wreaked havoc: Kostis fell in love with her. When Manos returns from exile, Pandora woos him but he turns her down. Manos senses that Pandora is hiding something. After an accident, which many thought was murder, things take a tragic turn.



WELL KEPT SECRETS - ATHANASSIA (Kala krymmena mystika, Athanasia)

director: Panos Krakanevatos
cinematographer: Dimitris Katsaitis
year: 2008

A young American woman, Angela, returns to her Greek roots in search of her real father. Accompanied by her stepfather, she shatters the very myths meant to protect her. She uncovers an unlikely relationship between those who raised her: a globetrotting photojournalist and Athanasia. Athanasia, a girl with no right in life. A choice of nature, but not of her community. Angela finds her father and discovers her mother.



SCREENINGS TIME AND DATES:

DUST
Silver Screen, 04 Dec, 14:00

DYING IN ATHENS
Silver Screen, 04 Dec, 18:45

EDUART
Polonia cinema (Medium), 29 Nov, 10:00

FOUR SEASONS OF THE LAW, THE
Polonia cinema (Medium), 28 Nov, 20:00

PANDORA
Silver Screen, 30 Nov, 21:45

WELL KEPT SECRETS - ATHANASSIA
Polonia cinema (Medium), 03 Dec, 10:00