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47th THESSALONICA FILM FESTIVAL Written by Giannis Frangoulis Translated by Konstantinos Vassilaros

SUSPENSEFUL WAITING

Already from the second day of the Festival, Greek Films began traveling from screen to screen: from the Olympion, to Tonia Marketaki room, to Vakoura 2. These were also the rooms that attracted the most people since the public of Thessalonica is eager to see what is the state and future of the Greek Cinema. One of the first films shown was Stavros Tsiolis’ film “The Small fugitive” (1968). This particular film marked the second period of Tsiolis’ work, while first his period was when he made films with Finos. Simultaneously, a new period for Greek comedy commences; a type of comedy completely different from the comedic style determined by the work of Sakellarios, Dalianidis and others. Another well-known director, one of the “old-ones”, Nikos Perakis, made a remake of his own “Loufa kai parallagi”, but this time names it “Loufa kai parallagi: sirens in the Aegean”. This remake is in some ways the sequel to his first film, which was loved by many. The sequel has already been released in theatres, has made its cycle, and went well in the Greek box office, however most critics criticized Perakis that his new work was much more inferior in relation to his older film, an opinion with which I very fairly agree with. In any case, this commercial success leads to the adaptation of his first film into television series. In the sequel, the humor does no function as well as his first one, and it seems that Perakis lost his sparkle and is not familiar with his subject as much as he was with his first film.

Another film made for television, directed by Nikos Kavoukidis and Giorgos Michalopoulos, “Apostle and alone”, based on the famous TV series, does not accomplish to break the boundaries of plain television narration and does not manage to approach the filmmaking sense. Michalopoulos made a very good impression as an actor, but his talent was inadequate to pull through the whole film. Giannis Oikonomidis brought his film last year at the Thessalonica Film Festival, where it was presented as a surprise-film. We saw it then and we saw it at its opening premiere in Athens. The public’s reaction at the premiere was adequate to make the distribution company cancel the deal. In addition to that, the film went to Cannes Festival and still did not have any positive reactions. “Soul in the Mouth”, the title of film, peaks with its suspense very early and keeps it at that level for the duration of the film. Something similar occurred in his other film, “Matchbox” (2003) but the continuous intensity of the suspense did not bother the audience as much. The main theme of this film loses our interest very fast. The protagonist is trialed all the time, in his own house, at his work, forcing him to crack, but his reaction was non-existent. Finally, he ends up killing the only person who tried to support him. The old-fashioned style film “The passage” by Dimitri Stavrakas, deals with the illegal immigrants and their ordeals hidden behind their own personal stories. The voice of the invisible narrator, the very badly executed voice-over, the perseverance of the camera showing what the narrator says and the obvious, the very typical, clichéd style narration, made the film look like the cinema from the 1950’s, trying to be neorealist, but finally losing all its strength with bad narration. Once more, dealing with illegal immigrants, the film “Beggars” directed by Stavros Ioannou, a documentary filmed in Evoia, barely dramatized, and blatantly made for television audiences, slightly better than your typical television reportages, makes it difficult for us to classify it as a documentary. However we can admit that it is a satisfactory television piece.

Amidst the numerous foreign films, the film “Khadak”, a Belgium-Germany-Holland co-production, made by Peter Brosens and Jessico Woodworth, recounts a period from the life of nomads in Mongolia. The exotic landscapes are not the only elements to amaze you. It is the very simple and frugal acting where, abstractively, they reveal to us what finally will strengthen the image, entering more deeply into the subject of the film. The narration succumb the simple description and embarks into a political incrimination, commenting on the fascism of the law enforcement, wanting to destroy the way of life of those nomads. The film “Suely in the sky”, by Karim Ainouz, a Portuguese-French-Brazilian co-production, transport us in Brazil where a young mother returns to the city she was born, to wait for her husband, who will never return. She will decide to sell her body thus gaining money to start her life. All the characters are faced with very harsh and unavoidable futures. The camera enters in the characters’ faces, into their own private space, allowing us to examine them and restructure the world they live in. Agnes Kocsis’ film, “Fresh air”, a Hungarian production, has a very similar theme. It tell the story of two brothers, Viola and Angela, who live in the same house, but their lives follow a completely different path. Viola is a cleaner for some communal toilets and because of that Angela does not want to be associated with her. Viola tries to find a husband in order to share her life with, while her sister is solely occupied with her school and her friends. This gap between them is widened, and with a very effective way the director manages to destroy all bridges between them, allowing a cathartic event create a certain balance among them. The film “Barren lives”, made by Brazilian Nelson Pereira dos Santos, resembles to classic Japanese cinema and in a very subtle way the film tells the story of a desperate family which is forced to flee from their own town due to a plague outbreak. The place they manage to run away to, will not be of any help to them, forcing them to continue their hopeless journey to the unknown. The director is one most important filmmakers of Brazilian cinema, has gone through almost all phases, and has managed to make films with great success.

Very typically structured was the Romanian film of Radu Muntean, “The paper will be blue”. It deals with the times of Ceausescu, but with an extremely palpable style, constantly keeping a one sided point of view. It does not allow the other side to be heard. On the contrary, the Chinese film, directed by Zhou Xiaowen, “The common people”, deals with individuals suffering from cerebral incapacity. We immediately are taken away from their obvious personal tragedy, and are allowed to observe those individuals as people with same rights in life like any other, while making strict criticism on the Chinese government that does not care, and does not provide any financial aid, for those underprivileged individuals, who exceed 60 millions in China. The narrative is accompanied by a very effective narration, which progressively and subtly changes to become an indictment without pointing any fingers. Finally the day will end with a Greek comedy, by Giannis Xanthopoulos, “Five”, a comedy that could function as a moral criticism, if it actually focused on the characters, understanding them, and commenting on their structure from the inside out. The film though does not manage to do any of the above, therefore it fails. Lastly, the French film “Avida”, by Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern, dynamically deals with the differences between the poor and the rich, transporting the same values to the animal kingdom, getting its point through with a raw, effective narration. However the film quickly becomes tiring and would very well function as a successful short film.

Sunday 19th November 2006, Giannis Frangoulis

47th THESSALONICA FILM FESTIVAL - SUSPENSEFUL WAITING