“Operation Star” is a WW II film set in Northern Greece. British planned Operation Star mission fails. Eight men, 5 Greek and 3 British, are sent to blow up a mountain railway bridge but are ambushed by the Germans leaving two survivors Major Vasilis Kostakis (Konstantinos Lagos) and Seargent Pavlos Linos (Lefteris Dimiropoulos). They must go over the mountain to meet up with a small Greek force. They are pursued by the highly efficient and ruthless Captain Hans Schmeichel (Giorgios Hatzitheodorou).
Starting as a young lad you might want to say I have watched almost all war movies made. Is “Operation Star” unique or is it all the same stuff? In many respects it is your standard war movie with guns a blazing, lots of human interaction between soldiers and clear lines between good and bad. Of course, the winners are the good guys as they control the historical narrative.
What might set “Operation Star” apart from other war movies is its soundtrack. Yes you have all the military drum themed music but the traditional Greek music adds a poignancy to the quieter moments of sorrow and love. My favourite scene was Kotsakis and Linos meeting up with partisan Kostas Kyriadikis (Manolis Savvidis) and his four “lions”. Kyriadikis is a wild man and quite a unique character for a war movie and his singing up on the mountain a Pontian Greek song is memorable and gives the movie a heartfelt Greek touch.
The film is important viewing for those unfamiliar with the ravages of German occupation. Resistance by Greeks was met by all manner of German atrocities including locking up of Greeks in churches and then setting fire to them. Public executions of villagers seen to be aiding the resistance is brutally portrayed in the film. Men, woman and children lined up and shot or burnt on the stake. This was reality and well documented but not known by many ex-Greece.
Some effort is paid to showing German occupiers as men who are soldiers and human but their brutality overcomes any shred of decency weakly set forth in the film. Given the German retributions, starvation of an estimated 300,000 Greeks in the war and the near complete elimination of its Jewish population what considerations of a decent humanity can be offered to the German soldiers in the film.
If you have watched war movies as “The Thin Red Line”, “Apocalypse Now” or “Platoon” you are familiar with the lush green scenery and the jungle noise. In “Operation Star” you will instead be rewarded with late fall scenery of Northen Greece and the sounds of the forest. Beautiful cinematography capturing the topography.
“Operation Star” offers even veteran war film watchers an excuse to watch it.
Directed by Vasilis Tsikaras.
You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZmYrFxBg88&t=4s
RKS 2024 Film Rating 75/100.
“Operation Star” shows as a film in the 4th Annual Greek Film Festival Tour (Canada) showing in 11 Canadian cities and online from 1-31October2024. Check out the festival website at https://gifft.ca
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