Robert K Stephen (CSW)

RKS 2024 Film: “The G”: Revenge of a Mean Old Goat

The movie opens with two men finishing off the burial of an “old goat” in the countryside. Before their departure one lights a cigarette, moves aside a bit of sand to expose a gaping mouth and the soon to be deceased has a last puff before biting the hand that proffered the cigarette. Seventy-two-year-old AnnContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “The G”: Revenge of a Mean Old Goat”

RKS 2024 Film: “Crossing”: Exotic Road Trip Searching for A Georgian Trans Women

Mrs. Lia (Mzia Arabuli), a retired Georgian history teacher, is on a hunt for her trans niece Tekla. Finding Tekla is the dying wish of her sister. The hunt commences in a Georgian seaside village where Tekla was last seen, but Tekla has disappeared. Achi (Lucas Kankava), a young villager, claims to have Tekla’s addressContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Crossing”: Exotic Road Trip Searching for A Georgian Trans Women”

RKS 2024 Film: “Inay” (Mama): The Mutual Pain of the Filipina Absent Mother

“Inay” is a Canadian documentary probing the pain of Filipina mothers leaving the Philippines to work as domestic workers in Canada primarily as child and elder minders. I knew several work colleagues that hired Filipina nannies to mind their children. Some of these nannies had left children and husbands behind and had not returned forContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Inay” (Mama): The Mutual Pain of the Filipina Absent Mother”

The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival (Canada): “Markings of Murder”: Fatherly Love of a Self Diagnosed Serial Killer

Donald Brubaker Jr. (Griffin Cork) is the son of serial killer whose last words from his father were, “Good luck Junior”. Dad’s toll was 6. Brubaker can’t shake the blackness of his past. It begins to overtake him causing him to sleepwalk at night waking up who knows where. It certainly can’t improve his mentalContinue reading “The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival (Canada): “Markings of Murder”: Fatherly Love of a Self Diagnosed Serial Killer”

The 4th Annual Greek Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Operation Star”

“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 mustContinue reading “The 4th Annual Greek Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Operation Star””

The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Listen” (Akouse me)

“Akouse me” is a voyage into cruelty, turmoil, tragedy, suffering, bullying and a small measure of redemption. Valmira (Efthalia Papacosta) is a 16-year-old girl attending a progressive school for the deaf in Athens. As the term ends she returns to a small village Katarrakis on the island of Chios in the Eastern Aegean to theContinue reading “The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Listen” (Akouse me)”

The 4th Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “The Promotion”

“The Promotion” could only have been made by a film director about a film director who is himself! It rolls along like a traditional film. In 1973 Nikos (Alexandros Logothetis) and his father Mr. Andrikos (Vasilis Kolovos) take the train from Athens to Thessaloniki. Mr. Andrikos wants to see where his son Nikos is livingContinue reading “The 4th Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “The Promotion””

The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “The Strangers’ Case”

“The Strangers’ Case” was filmed in Jordan, Turkey and Greece. It recounts the journey of several refugees from Aleppo in Syria to the island of Lesvos, Greece in the Eastern Aegean Sea. Amira is a successful pediatric radiologist working in a hospital that is running short of supplies but is never short of blood andContinue reading “The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “The Strangers’ Case””

The 4th Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Lost on Kythera”

“Lost on Kythera” is a comedic spoof not afraid to jab here and there. It carries on a spoofing and satirical streak like Greek cinema of the 1960’s and 1970’s and at times verges on slapstick. Louie (Louie Betton) and Maria (Nancy Boukli) both university students are twenty months into a romantic relationship and haveContinue reading “The 4th Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Lost on Kythera””

The 4th Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Murderess” (Fonissa)

One of the very special films showing at the upcoming 4th Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada) (GIFFT) showing in 11 Canadian cities 1-31October2024, Fonissa, had the highest box office sales in Greece for 2023. It is based on an Alexandros Papadiamantis novel of the same name published in 1912. Set in a small villageContinue reading “The 4th Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Murderess” (Fonissa)”