The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Behind the Haystacks”: Reality Trumps the Façade

If you travel through farmland you often see haystacks. They can be domed, square or circular and pleasing to look at, almost artistic. Behind the perfect structure what is hiding?

In “Behind the Haystacks” could it be that the haystack is the public persona and the private person is what hides behind the haystack.

Its time frame is 2015 a time when migrants were storming Greece through Northern Greece and certain islands in the Aegean off the Turkish coast. You’ll hear the radio and the television in several scenes discussing the migrant crisis.

It has been filmed at Lake Dorian with Greece on one side and North Macedonia on the other.

The film begins the way it ends with children running to an outdoor celebration and telling all they have seen two bodies at the edge of Lake Dorian where they were playing.

The film divides itself into three chapters; Stergios the father, Maria the mother and Anastasia the daughter.

Stergios’, (Stathis Stamoulaktos) public persona is a hard-working famer and part time fisherman. But he has in the past cheated on his taxes using manufactured false invoices. He is pinned under a huge debt load.

Maria (Eleni Ouzounido) his wife is a devout church going lady but jealous of those in the church’s volunteer ranks. She lies to the father of the church and to the police to protect her family.

Anastasia (Evgenia Lavda) is a hardworking nurse trainee at a local hospital caught under the thumb of father Stergios and must lie to assert her independence.

In the local patriarchal society Maria jumps to the commands of Stergios and Anastasia is under the vice grip Stergios who on occasion slaps her around.

In the wonderful façade of village life and national existence there are the ugly cross currents of migrants swamping Greece. The majority of the village is suspicious of the migrants as one villager remarks where they come from they are killing each other. Even the village father wants his parishioners not to assist the migrants. Yet on the sly some are assisting the migrants and a few are making very good returns over smuggling migrants over Lake Dorian from North Macedonia into Greece.

There is corruption in the local co-op of grain farmers, migrants are dying trying to cross the lake, lying in the judicial process, setting up an Albanian farmworker for a murder charge let alone a murder being committed.

Perhaps the truest character is Anastasia and her murdered boyfriend Christos and his murder is just but a bit of sordidness behind the haystack.

The director is Asimina Proedrou.

In Greek with English subtitles.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfK_LrAcYpE&t=15s.  

RKS 2024 Film Rating 87/100.

Screens in the The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada) in 11 Canadian cities 1-31October2024. For more information https://gifft.ca

The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Sgt. Fruit Fly”: A Very Greek Take on Teenage Life

You might think this just might be one of those teen movies you would watch in North America. Think again. The themes of bullying, fitting in and adolescent sexuality are covered in “Sgt. Fruit Fly” but with a hard-edged Greek tinge that make the movie truly appealing to the 15 plus teenage crowd and adults. It was shot in Kalyvia and Athens the Kalyvia setting giving it an exotic feel or a very Greek feel if you are familiar with Attica in Greece.

Stanley Smith (Jamie Mayers) lives with Canadian mother Rosemary (Mara Marini), sister Elenora and dog Vincent in Kalyvia a small town. Stanley is ruthlessly bullied by the Dumbskis a trio of teens with an absent father and a less than attentive mother.

Poor Stanley rides a pink bike named Fruit Fly and with his army issued helmet he is named Sgt. Fruit Fly by the Dumbskis.

Stanley is rather taken in by the oversexed Nikoletta but it is the Goth Girl that has true non exploitative feelings for Stanley. Nikoletta has the moves, the body but is a user that promises to be Stanley’s girlfriend when he buys a fast car and turns over ownership of it to her.

Rosemary plays a Roma character telling fortunes, reading a crystal ball and making potions including a courage potion for Stanley as he is brutally pummeled by the Dumbskis.

Stanley works at a bowling alley club owned by the very strange Danny (Makis Papadimitriou) who abuses him. Papadimitriou showed his acting mettle in “Suntan” and in his role here shows he can pull off a comedic role. Nikoletta sleazes her way into a bartending job at the bowling alley. She is a bit of a “slut” as Rosemary refers to her as “just like her mother”.

The Dumbski’s decrepit father George has his children, yes his children, stage a robbery of Danny’s bowling alley and the horror-fairy tale begins. All is happy. Stanley is a hero and discovers his true love is with the Goth Girl.

What sets this film apart from North American “equivalents” is the vicious brutality of the Dumbskis and the fact that young teens are staging an armed heist. Leslie Dumbski (Niki Skiadaresi) is not a misguided teen but a vicious thug she conveys so convincingly. And Nikoletta (Stefania Champilomati) is indeed a teen reeking of shallow and exploitative sexuality and she does a superb and not overdone job of that. Kudos to Jamie Mayers for keeping the film centred and for that matter somewhat wholesome. The film is no Cinderella story but it is certainly no “Dusk Until Dawn”.

A refreshing teen movie but my thought it is suitable for 15 years of age and up. This is not sterile teen movie. It has an edge. Written and directed by Tommy King. Ahead of its time for the North American market.

Part of the 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada) showing in theatres and on line 1-31Ocober2024 in 11 Canadian Cities.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmkuNm_oGa4

I give this film a 90/100.

The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “The Last Taxi Driver”: The Thin Red Line Between Obsession and Mental Illness

The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada) presents “The Last Taxi Driver”. Admit it you are already thinking of the classic Scorsese 1976 Film “Taxi Driver”. Thomas (Kostas Koronaios) is an Athenian taxi driver who replaces the violence of Travis Bickle with a quieter and creepier form of violence. He is a stalker. Is he obsessed or mentally ill or is there even a thin red line between the two?

Thomas the taxi driver

Thomas is a former book editor, translator and even poet perhaps a more intellectual past than his present. He is in his fifties with his wife Maria and son Tassos living in an apparently happy home.

Thomas has the night shift. A passenger complains to Thomas he is still providing for his three children and they are bleeding him dry. Thomas agrees. The passenger argues with Thomas about the 13 Euro fare claiming he has been an accountant for many years and has calculated the correct fare. He pays Thomas 10 Euros and leaves the taxi promptly blowing his brains out. Thomas rifles his briefcase and finds neatly wrapped wads of Euros. He puts the blood-spattered spectacles of the passenger in his pocket. He drives off not reporting the suicide to the police.

Thomas tells no one and returning to the scene of the suicide at a memorial for his passenger meets Eleni (Klelia Andrilatou) with a mysterious connection to the deceased. Thomas gives Eleni a lift and there is some vigorous “sexual activity” in the taxi. Eleni treats the episode as simply a reaction to the death of Thomas’ passenger. Thomas interprets it as something more.

Thomas becomes somewhat strange, locking himself in a closet  at home to write, drinking heavily and arguing with his wife Maria. Was it the suicide causing his transformation?

The film from this point on is replete with long winded philosophizing by Thomas about life and love. The monologues are a cross between astute observations and gibberish and Thomas surges into increasingly bizarre behaviour perhaps searching for the intellectual life he left behind. The mild-mannered taxi driver transforms into a quiet aggressive creep. The viewer is expecting something drastic will happen particularly in the bizarre ending where at Eleni’s apartment he, with the skill of the proverbial weasel,  gets on the good side of Andreas, Eleni’s boyfriend and exposes the corruption of Eleni and Andreas and his own mental illness as he claims to be Eleni’s accountant wearing the glasses of the deceased accountant passenger.

The next logical step it would seem is to complete the identity by pulling a gun and blowing his brains out whilst Andreas and Eleni are in a wild sex escapade with Thomas watching through the keyhole. I wait for the pop of the gun pointed to Thomas’ head.

One of those classic intellectually challenging Euro films you might say but is the intellectualism of Thomas mere gibberish of a mentally ill stalker?

Klelia Andrilatou puts on a strong performance as the mysterious woman. Kostas Koronaios excels quietly and forcefully transforming into a man you’d rather not encounter.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Ktgs4D3bQ&t=6s. The film is in Greek with English subtitles.

Directed by Stergios Paschos his first feature film.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 86/100.

For details as to showing of the film at The 4th Annual Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada) running from 1-31October2024 go to https://gifft.ca

RKS 2024 Film: “The Secret Art of Human Flight”: Psychiatry and Reality vs. Dreams and Fantasy

Ben Grady (Grant Rosenmeyer) has lost his 31-year-old wife Sarah. He had left the house to pick up some mac n cheese and upon returning 30 minutes later she was dead. Ben is in deep grief. He sits like a zombie wrapped in a blanket including in front of his house for three successive days.

A suspicious police detective questions Ben and through selective interpretation has suspicions Ben murdered Sarah for insurance money. She has her eyes peeled on Ben.

While browsing the internet a YouTube video catches his eye. It is of a man jumping off the cliff in what looks like a suicide attempt but once he jumps over the cliff he shoots up in the air in flight!

Ben investigates further and on the dark web watches a video of a long-haired mystical elderly man, Mealworm (Paul Raci), who professes to be able to teach humans how to fly for a payment of $5,400. Ben pays the amount and a manual “The Secret Art of Human Flight” arrives full of typos like some Nigerian scam e-mail. Warning!

Mealworm arrives shortly after to train Ben how to fly. Five chapters of the manual are taught by Mealworm; “The Foreign Home”, “Preparing the Body”, “Preparing the Mind”, “Conquering Irrational Fear” and “The Secret Art of Human Flight”.

Ben endures all manner of mystical and cooky acts such as sleeping on the roof, clearing his house of all furniture (except that in his writing room), shaving part of his body hair, washing his clothes by hand and drying them in the sun and taking a mystical spiritual adventure i.e. a magic mushroom trip.

Friends and relatives become concerned about Ben’s behaviour. The suspicious detective does a search on the plates of Mealworm’s Winnebago named Sally. Very interesting information is obtained. Ben suffers an incident while undergoing a Conquering Irrational Fear and is admitted to a psychiatric institution.

What occurs next may very well put an enormous smile on your face because your heart has a little illogical component called “belief in fantasy” or you may frown and let “logic” and psychiatry” form your conclusion. In either situation your voyage through the film will be entertaining. It may also cause you to think not only the horrors of grief but its power to motivate and change the human spirit for the better.

Directed by H.P. Mendoza and very cleverly written by Jesse Orenshein.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpqcACF46sk

RKS 2024 Film Rating 94/100.

As of 23August2024 Available on Demand.

RKS 2024 Wine: The Pavlovian Dog Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Many hearing “Malbec” salivate and bark up the Argentinian tree forgetting or not knowing that Malbec can be found in France. In fact it is one of the permitted grapes for red Bordeaux and has quite a reputation in the Cahors appellation for quality and ageability.

Let’s give Prieuré de Cénac Malbec from the Cahors appellation a try.

Aroma: A dark black cherry coloured wine. Lush and plush quite like many Argentinian Malbecs. Dense black cherry, blueberry and smoke.

Palate: Blackberry predominates with Washinton black cherry. Creeping tannins or tricky if you wish because initially the wine appears soft but wait 3 or 4 seconds and tannins set in not ferocious but firm. High toned acidity well integrated into the wine. Moderately long finish with some juiciness. I was expecting more fruit on the palate.

Personality: On the nose you might easily mistake me for Argentinian but I have a bit more backbone in terms of acidity and tannins with less plushness.

Food Match:  Pasta topped with a sauce of field tomato, garlic, onion and a generous glug red wine and fresh basil, oregano, rosemary and chives.

Cellarbility: Consume by 2028-year end.

Price: $20 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 88/100. Wine Align 87. Roger Voss Wine Enthusiast 93.

(Prieuré de Cénac 2020 Malbec, AC Cahors, Chateau Saint Didier Parnac, Parnac, France, 750 mL,14%.).

RKS 2024 Film: Sailing with the H.M.S. Hollywood Suite to The Highland Cinemas in Kinmount, Ontario: “The Movie Man” Up Close and Personal! Part Three!

“Movie Man” is a Canadian documentary about 5 very special theatres and the man that created them.

Keith Stata started construction of Highland Cinema in 1975 and in 1979 the theatre opened and through gradual expansion there are now 5 cinemas. Stata bluntly states it was his “stupid idea” to build Highland Cinemas.

Architecturally you might say that Highland Cinemas is a compound not of Scientology but of movie history and ephemera of decades that has been created and maintained by Stata to spark memories. Organized by the decade I can certainly attest to it connecting me with time past much of which I had consciously forgotten.

“Movie Man” is permeated with Stata’s love of cinema and its connection with time. The documentary reminds one of “The Fablemans”, “Cinema Paradiso” and “The Last Picture Show”.

Stata started his love of cinema making his own pictures in his younger years but realized his future would not be in film production but construction and with those construction skills built and or designed the complex.

Stata’s favourite movie is “The Time Machine” a 1960 film based on H.G. Well’s novel of the same name. Stata is a man mindful of time and says the only significance we have is what we do here and his significance was building the cinemas in the middle of nowhere. His view of multiplex cinemas is that they are crap, plastic and advertisements. Not so with Highland Cinemas he says as it is an experience you’ll never forget.

The patrons are often cottagers vacationing in the area and tourists from all points in the globe. It opens in May and closes after Thanksgiving. Rainy days are good for business!

The cinemas are unique, cozy and may I say the La Scala of the anti multiplex movement! The complex is also a museum to different points of the time spectrum with ephemera of the decades, a hall of horror and a collection of projectors nestled in twenty acres just outside the town of Kinmount, Ontario about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Toronto. Kinmount was a great lumber centre with 6 mills but massive fires decimated the town in 1900 and 1942. Highland Cinemas have become the lifeblood of Kinmount with its population of 300.

It is clear there is a massive amount of effort on Stata’s part to operate and maintain the theatres and he is getting on in age. COVID almost polished off Highland Cinemas but he hung on. And there are the 52 cats he has collected and housed in their own mini complexes.

What is the fate of Highland Cinemas? I can’t travel in time but who out there has the vision and tenacity to continue operation of Highland Cinemas after Stata steps aside?

Could it be the sterile multiplex has had its run and cinemas with soul and personality will make a comeback. I must say I enjoyed a movie theatre for the first time in 40 years. It may well be you have the same experience.

Director is Matt Finlin and the producer is Ed Robertson.

You can watch the trailer here https://vimeo.com/691467989

On demand in Canada on Hollywood Suite on 1August2024 with linear broadcasts as of 7August2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 93/100.

RKS 2024 Film: Sailing with the H.M.S. Hollywood Suite to The Highland Cinemas in Kinmount, Ontario: “The Movie Man” Up Close and Personal! Part Two!

No beautiful people (other than myself) are greeting us and where is the red carpet? A local Kinmount matron with a big smile ushers us into the cinema with a bag of popcorn. Speaking of food why is there no mall with a Montana’s and 16 other restaurants down the street? I mean we are this tiny town with a couple of restaurants so who would come to Highland Cinemas for an evening out to eat the best fish and chips in Ontario before the show?

And the actual theatre in which we are to watch the documentary is more like a rumpus room than the cinemas we love with lots of plastic and not a spot of individuality. And much of the theatre is decorated with artifacts taken from over 450 shuttered theatres. It is all old stuff. Wasn’t Robert Duvall saying in “Apocalypse Now” , “I love the smell of acrylic and plastic in a theatrical matinee?”  Geez. We are here to see a film not to admire uniqueness we are unfamiliar with in a multiplex.

So munching this damn tasty popcorn but for goodness sake made with a 1965 recipe using coconut oil. Aren’t coconut trees dangerous as Keith Richards took a terrible tumble from one?

Food looks good but no wine list? Photo Robert K. Stephen

There is that guy from “Apocalypse Now” introducing the film….you know that actor on “Two Men” is it…Charlie Sheen? The Sheen guy loves the film but give me a break as why didn’t Hollywood Suite fly the man up? Most likely the sad story I hear from Route 504, the firm handling the public relations for someone involved with this film namely the corporate jet is under maintenance and due to COVID there are supply chain issues affecting the light bulb in the WC. COVID?

Anyways feeling vulnerable, lonely and even frightened as I have been told there can be bears in the parking lot. The movie rolls. I take deep breaths and have a brief meditation. Damn mosquito bite has made my fingers itchy.

With wild savage animals prowling about I reluctantly turn my phone off. When the bears come storming in like the dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park” how can I call the local constables to save me first then after that all the Torontonians from the bus.

I am feeling a bit silly wearing a tuxedo here.

Part three: The documentary will be finally reviewed.

RKS 2024 Film: Sailing with the H.M.S. Hollywood Suite to The Highland Cinemas in Kinmount, Ontario: “The Movie Man” Up Close and Personal! Part One!

A film critic slaves away under the oppression of well intentioned but unpaid blogs. Wowzers the return is incredible! All the movies you can watch which you can spend 6-7 hours writing about after watching a film with an occasional thank you. No way to make a living but rather an endorsement of poverty. So finally expecting a payout I was anticipating a big swag bag and a google eyed mingling with celebrities on our chartered bus trip to Kinmount, Ontario. Celebrities were D list on the bus, yes I said bus! A few had extras’ experience and one luminary was a dancer on a Nelly Furtado video! I am one to talk having failed an audition to appear on “Peoples Court” in 1972. Those who can’t act write about it.

We were heading to The Highland Cinemas in Kinmount, Ontario to watch a Canadian premiere of “The Movie Man” about Keith Stata the creative force behind The Highland Theatres.

So on we chugged from Toronto with Nino the bus driver who sings like a lark but was so stressed out with Toronto traffic his Caruso voice had shrunk like George Costanza on that Long Island episode where frigid pool water had demasculinized him.

My God a stirring homily on cottage life over the bus microphone from Ally of Route 504 a whippersnapper Toronto PR firm a gargantuan force for cinema public relations. First mate Ally was visibly distraught explaining her past nearby cottage experience over the bus microphone. So many waifs were packed up tight in her yesteryear cottage the local mosquitos treated the cottage like a blood bar! Poor children scrabbling for a blanket to keep from freezing in crisp Kawartha cottage night air. Ally recalls saying, in Oliveresque fashion “Please more sir” for wieners on a stick over the campfire. Was that a tear rolling down her face?

Then a big wheel from Hollywood Suite cautioned about using the bus washroom. Number Two was Verboten. Was he watching too much “Das Poop” on Hollywood Suite?

So halfway through the trip snacks were distributed. Throwback “Dunkaroos” and “Fruit Roll Ups”. Deadly man. With Route 504 and Hollywood Suite where was the Veuve Clicquot and truffled popcorn?

So we finally arrive at Kinmount, Ontario with a population of 300 (dogs and cats included) and The Highland Cinemas and at first glance was there some mushroom magic in our snacks?

Imagine a conglomerate of houses and structures containing five theatres resembling a mashing of drive-ins from 1963 Burlington, Vermont coupled with a bad episode of “Hoarders”, a movie ephemera museum, Honest Eds and a house of horrors at Centre Island in Toronto. Is this a Jim Jones hallucination at a compound with free Koolaid?

And strange signs everywhere saying do this and that. One said close the door to the entrance. By God you won’t see this at a multiplex! You see Kinmount mosquitos have a voracious appetite and if you leave the front door open your movie experience may be bloody and itchy.

No cash or debit…is this 1963? Photo: Robert K. Stephen

Instead of a swag bag with Cartier we are greeted with a bag of popcorn and a cup for soda. I mean the popcorn is popped in coconut oil and tossed in savory spices and is so damn good despite the old fogey 1965 recipe using Weaver Gold Kernels! So good I ate the entire bag! Soft drinks from a dispenser you control? Too much power to the people! I mean we are media people and given popcorn and soda in a movie theatre? How on earth can readers expect a review pulsing with enthusiasm? No swag bag. No champagne with caviar? What type of media trip is this.  The Highland Cinemas in Kinmount, Ontario struggles against the sterile movieplex culture. Skeeters in the movie theatre…call Public Health!

NEXT: The film rolls followed by a deluxe lunch!

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 Ann Hunter (Dale Dickey) lives with husband Chip in a modest condo. Chip is in rough shape on oxygen. Ann is a rather raunchy lady with wrinkles galore and certainly no spring chicken. She loves her vodka and smokes perhaps a bit too much to the detriment of Chip.

Then early in the morning while Ann and Chip are sleeping their door is bashed down and their “guardian”, Rivera, armed with a court order quickly transports them to a “care facility” named “Christ the King: Eldercare Facility”. For the next month they are locked in a barren room with food shoved in through the door. And the special “palliative care unit”! Ann learns the care facility is full of those under guardianship. Lonely, isolated and with assets which are of course under the control of guardians. Corrupt doctors work hand in hand with “guardians” to control asserts of the elderly. One important politician with his feet in the mud of corruption it seems owns a string of eldercare facilities.

The guardian, in this case Rivera, pressures Ann to disclose an inheritance she allegedly had received. Facing resistance, he orders Chip the invalid confined to a wheelchair beaten. Chip later succumbs to his injuries and the self described “not a nice person” Ann is forced into revenge mode. Her only ally is her granddaughter Emma (Romane Denis) and a shady ex-soldier from her family in rural Texas.

If you like your bad guys mean you’ll have them here and since they are abusers of seniors their meanness is amplified. But they underestimate Ann who is even meaner than they are but as befits good revenge films she has morals on her side while the bad guys only think profits.

There are also traitors, double dealers and psychopaths peppered throughout the film.

Being a typical revenge film moral justice is served perhaps predictably but the journey has its excitement. Can we change the name of the film to “A Country for a Mean Old Goat”.

Dale Dickey is brilliant and without her character and performance the film would be a mere echo of the reality of the senior guardianship business. “Dirty Harry”? “Fistful of Dollars”? A whole new genre of senior revenge?

Oh, by the way “G” stands for Granny!

Directed by Karl R. Hearne.

Plays at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal on 26July2024 with a possible Canadian theatrical release in September 2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 91/100.

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 address in Istanbul and speaking some English and Turkish persuades Mrs. Lia to take him to assist her in the hunt.

Travelling by bus they arrive in Istanbul which dazzles the viewer with its bustling calamity. Tekla is not to be found at the address provided by Achi which is amid the “trans quarter” populated by trans sex workers.

The search takes Achi and Mrs. Lia throughout many than less savory but colourful districts of Istanbul. They meet trans lawyer Evrim (Deniz Dumanli) in the midst of finalizing her female identity card. Evrim volunteers for “Pink Life” which protects the rights of the trans community.

Evrim is a bright light of optimism and charisma. Mrs. Lia is a tense tightly knit ball of negativity. Achi walks a tightrope between the two mouth agape at the seething life of Istanbul. This melange is odd but it works!

The search leads to a trans bordello run by “Mother” where it so happened Tekla worked but disappeared as “you know what it is like with girls and drugs”.

Is Tekla ever found? Interpret the end of the film as you wish.

The plot is rather simplistic; a search for a missing family member but the adventure is an exciting one highlighting an Istanbul most tourists will never encounter. In fact great credit must be given to the actors but Istanbul itself may be the star of the film. The Turkish music adds to the exoticism of Istanbul.

Yes, enjoy the adventure with a diverse group of characters but central to the film is forgiveness and self realization of a needlessly cruel behavior and attitude to the trans community where an apology may be too late hence tragic.

Written and directed by Levan Akin.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp7LGi5Uwg4

The Canadian theatrical release commences 26July2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 90/100.