RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “She Loved Blossoms More”

“She Loved Blossoms More” is a film difficult to categorise as to genre and the best I can suggest is “psychedelic horror”. Consider it a combination of “The Wizard of Oz”, the blue pill from “The Matrix”, “Back to the Future”, “Mad Max” and the LSD trip in New Orleans in “Easy Rider”.

The plot has three young brothers Hedgehog, Japan and Dummy attempting to bring back their mother through a time machine, their mother’s wardrobe.

After two years of experimentation that results in fried turtles, pigs and a variety of other animals the best success is transporting a chicken to the past which is somewhat successful as the chicken is returned headless but alive with glowing orifice where its head was. Science can be cruel for sure. Perhaps that is one message of the film.

The boys’ drug dealer, Samantha, arrives supplying a variety of snortable psychedelic powder launching a spacey and debaucherous trip as if atmospheric weirdness wasn’t already present through spectacular set design, costuming, special effects and creative camera work. It is a wild hallucinogenic sex explosion and the boys’ scientific experimentation launches into cruelty and savagery when Hedgehog pushes Samantha into the time machine, locks the door and presses the on button. The barbarity of scientific experimentation a message of the film.

Samantha returns somewhat like the chicken, but her head has been split in two and she has three eyes and a glowing gap in her head.

The bizarre and creative visualization is a cinematographic a masterpiece and the plot suffers from cooked psychedelics and falters in coherence.

I can’t say I have ever watched such a film as it combines a number of themes of the films described above. Where it fails is a logical development of plot. It is a feast of visualization, special effects and costumes sort of a “Grand Bouffe” of cinema on the verge of gorging itself.

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/embed/I143IrvQHKs

Directed by Yannis Veslemes.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 90/100.

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “Killerwood”

“Killerwood” is yet another Greek film showcasing at The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival. It is the third festival film I have watched about a film making a film a seemingly favourite modern Greek film genre.

On one level it is intriguing because it focuses on the production of a film including many of its aspects in a semi-comedic fashion. If you are a novice to the technicalities of film production you will encounter here the role of a director, producer, costume designer, set designer, film crew and of course the actors. Not intentionally educational mind you but done in an amusing way and a mandatory 101 course for students of film production.

Then there is the plot. An aspiring young director enamoured with slasher films directs a film about a serial killer who has murdered 17 people in and around Athens using a variety of methods. The character Elena is to play the role of a journalism student investigating the murders under the premise they may be those of a serial killer. She is living with Yiannis an aspiring young filmmaker. Viewers watch the preproduction and rehearsals encountering several brilliantly performed characters including a massively gregarious and overstressed trans costume designer, a producer tired of begging for money to produce the film, a blind theatre actor who agrees to play the part of a psychoanalyst and of course a temperamental director who is hospitalized for a suicide attempt jump off a roof as the lead actress may be joining a Lanthimos production and leaving his production. A multitude of zippy one liners punctuate the film.

During the production mysterious events transpire. Anonymous deliveries of bloody knives, packages of guts and spleens, taunting telephone calls and texts and unexplained deliveries of flowers. At this point where does the production of a movie start being replaced by chilling reality narrated by spooky telephone calls. One anonymous text states its sender is making his own movie while watching production of the movie.  A brilliant blending of fiction and reality both confusing and delightful. And the cast and crew is being watched but is this extraneous import of “reality” merely part of the production of the movie?

Director Christos Massalas has crafted a brilliant film somewhat like an Agatha Christie whodunit melded with any nature of psychokiller films.

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/embed/BRSxZHlNj6g

RKS 2024 Film Rating 93/100.

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th International Thessaloniki Film Festival: “Hunt”

“Hunt” is as about as dark and despondent as imaginable. Shot in late autumn in sombre hues and occasional in and out focus camerawork it weighs the viewer down with depressive weight and there is nowhere to go but down.

Yiannis (Giannis Belis) is a hunter of fowl and he smokes as if in a suicidal quest. The film opens with him hunting in the woods and then attending his mother’s funeral in a small Greek hillside village. He returns to his flat in an urban area of Greece to his metal work job. In a sombre dilapidated work setting he welds, smokes and coughs.

His next-door neighbor, Elias is a night watchman with a dog that continually howls and whines and despite the complaints lodged by Yiannis to Elias continues to abuse his dog. Yiannis exhibits compassion toward the forlorn canine by feeding it through an opening in a balcony adjacent to Elias’ and stroking its head and paws and speaking gently to it augmenting the rage of Elias resulting in a threat to “fuck up” Yiannis if he continues.

Yiannis expresses guilt to the owner of the metal works he had not visited his mother frequently enough and it is eating him up. Then a problem is raised by Kyriakos, Yiannis’ notary about his inheritance that will cost thousands of Euros to rectify. He makes an error in preparing an order for a major customer. His coughing worsens yet the cigarettes never stop. And he has a crush on the bakery lady, makes a piece of jewellery for her but hasn’t the courage to express his affection by giving it to her. A lonely old man perhaps knowingly dying.

He has recurring dreams of a man trudging in the heat across salt flats and flashes of his mother in the coffin. He suspects Kryiakos, his notary is swindling him. And one day while hunting with a bird in his sights he fails to pull the trigger. One afternoon during his meal the dog continues his whining, and Yiannis pounds on the door and is hurled abuse by Elias.

Matters have gone as far as patience and a shattered mental health can endure. The dog finds a loving home with the son of his boss. Cruelty to an animal has ended. Moral justice is served.

Watch the film if you are prepared for a dark journey.

The director is Christos Pitharas.

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/embed/s0x32PLVMT4

RKS 2024 Film Rating 92/100.

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Annual Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “The Sock”

Kyros is a struggling filmmaker injured by a collapsing wall during some bizarre if not inane dance movement performance. His leg is fractured and two ligaments are torn.  On crutches he has become temporarily disabled.

Kyros proposes producing a film about his temporary disability and how that effects the relationships around him. It will also feature his permanently disabled cousin afflicted with multiple sclerosis.

Should Kyros sue the gallery owner where the accident occurred and the performer that pulled the wall causing it to tumble on Kyros? Initially Kyros takes the high and mighty view all performers are in a community and morality and solidarity should take precedence over legality. Kryos learns slowly that performers may be more interested in promoting their own interests in preference to the furtherance of this mythical community.

Friends are not really the friends Kyros anticipated they would be and some take advantage of his selflessness.

Aside from morality investigated in the film there is the physicality of the disabled being ignored and sidelined.

There are comedic moments particularly the ebb and flow of operatic music. A spectacular but absurd messianic and 2001 Space Odyssey ending.

Definitely one of those artistic films not destined for the mainstream but go ahead and revel in the symbolism as after all it is a movie about a movie about a movie.

This Cypriot movie is directed by Kyros Papavassilou and you can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/embed/kEmjAGayPzY

RKS 2024 Film Rating 86/100.

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Annual Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “Café 404”

“Café 404” is for you if like a group of decent people who discover a bag of loot and four dead bodies in a restaurant on the skids who then fight over the loot the dead bodies left behind and fight even more when 5 kilos of cocaine are also found. As one of the apparently decent people, Nico (Antonis Tsiotsopoulos) says, “Where there are drugs involved there will always be someone looking for them.” How true that is here.

Several layers of bad guys appear and you’ve seen these burly thugs before but the mob boss is brilliantly played by Vassilis Koukalani who is smooth as cyanide laced butter. A ruthless gentleman type and as I say almost worth the price of admission.

Aside from Koukalani the rest of the cast is unimpressive and yes the script is lacking in originality. Viewer boredom may be augmented to misery with an annoying closing song.

A forgettable unimaginative effort.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/embed/G6i8SugvE30

Directed by Alexandros Tsilifonis.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 56/100.

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “Brando with a Glass Eye”

45 minutes of conventional film making is followed by diffuse and scattered imagery desperately clinging to a wandering plot. Call it boring at that point or be generous and artsy or experimental which loses much of the audience. An audience does not necessarily want to be spoon fed but may wander lost in imagery and theatrical sophistry.

Luca (Yiannis Niarros) is an aspiring actor informed by a prestigious New York acting school he has been granted an audition for a method acting scholarship. He lives with his brother Aleko (Kostas Nikoulis) in an Athenian flat and both are grieving for the murder of their mother by their father.

Luca requires funds for travelling to his New York audition and Aleko dreams of opening a wine bar. They plan a heist of a sex club which goes awry as in the process of grabbing the bag of cash innocent bystander Ilias (Alexandros Chrysanthopoulos) is injured by a stray bullet. There is no cash in the bag.

Much of the soundtrack at this point is classic noir setting us up for a crime thriller which never develops. There is also in an almost propagandistic manner the Big Brotherian shrill if not semi-hysterical visual and audio clips of acting coach Stela Adler fuelling Luca’s erratic actions.

In a Crime and Punishment Raskolnikovian moment Luca visits Ilias in the hospital but is not recognized as both brothers were wearing masks during the heist. Luca and Ilia strike up a friendship that transcends class boundaries as Ilias is an idle member of the bourgeoisie whereas Luca is a garage mechanic.

Luca begins a series of role plays. As he simply can’t resist plying his method acting trade he plays various roles throughout the remainder of the film. What is reality and what is acting for Luca and for the viewer too? Deluded and psychotic Luca makes an excellent companion for the decadent Ilias as they spiral into increasingly eccentric and dangerous behaviour.

What barely cements the film is the brilliant performance of Yiannis Niarros with an ability and a presence that will transcend him into more commercial mainstream roles if of course that is the direction he wants to head into. John Wick’s long lost brother!

Directed by Antonis Tsonis.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 76/100.

RKS Mindfulness: My Earthquake Experience Today

I am in Thessaloniki, Greece covering the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival. I was in the midst of an online watch of a featured film at the festival and a swaying started. I initially thought it was my chair wobbling a bit but after a millisecond I knew it was an earthquake tremor. It was very powerful but gentle. How strange the evening before I started thinking about earthquakes which are no stranger to Thessaloniki. On my last trip to the Aegean Island of Samos I missed an earthquake off the coast by a day.

You may ask did I feel fear. No. I felt totally helpless like a bug trapped in setting amber. The tremor had me swaying in my chair feeling that perhaps my end had come. Excuse my ignorance about earthquake tremors as the last earthquake I experienced was in Toronto on the 65th floor late on a Friday afternoon closing a business transaction. I felt nothing at all.

I felt wobbly for a few minutes after having to hold onto the wall to keep from tumbling over. Minor shock set in afterwards. I started to shake for a few minutes in disbelief. It was a 5.2 Richter scale earthquake close to the island of Crete. There have been no reports of injuries or physical damage in Greece.

Processing my experience, I recall a passage from the Buddhist monk Thupten Jinpa in his book “A Fearless Heart” where he said everyone can feel sympathy but perhaps we should move to a more feeling compassion. That sounded “interesting” but today I have a great compassion for those who have been through an earthquake far more serious than the little blip I experienced. A life experience can teach far more than a book.

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “The Philosopher: I Have Something to Say”

Greek cinema is multi faceted, but with a strong satirical tradition frequently directed against the traditional pillars of Greek society; the church, politicians, the military and the bureaucracy.

In “The Philosopher” the satirical sword cuts a swath through intellectuals, philosophy, religion, television, academia, book publishers and film production.

It is a movie about movie production.

Stavros is a film professor and a failed filmmaker specializing in analyzing feature film scripts. Interest in his course is waning and he is given the boot. A new award-winning hot shot short film producer has usurped his importance if not relevance. Students are more interested in how to win film awards than anything deeper.

Stavros transitions to writing a book on philosophy but it amounts to a stream of gibberish. Is philosophy in its essence gibberish and sophisticated wordsmithing? It would seem so as all he spouts is unintelligible. Anytime some philosophical expression is used in the film it makes no sense and it is often used to confuse and intimidate people!

Stavros encounters no success in locating a willing publisher until Rigma Publishing expresses its interest but he will have to pay a large fee to have it distributed. Rigma also specializes in planning children’s birthday parties! Philosophy is no hot seller. Stavros’ book is a dud despite a high-profile celebrity launch where the celebrities are more interested in selling themselves than bolstering book sales. Copies of the book are sold at a promotional event but purchasers want celebrity autographs leaving Stavros alone in a corner. Rigma pockets the sale proceeds of the books and the revenue from the cash bar. Book publishers as scam artists?

In a memorable scene the “great philosopher” Stavros works on his manuscript on his balcony with a beautiful Athenian sunset eating his souvlaki while the junkman rolls through in the street below with his loudspeaker offering to remove junk. Does that include the manuscript Stavros is writing! Stavros and his daughter Daphne live in a filthy pigsty. Socrates he is not!

The only connection Stavros makes is with a Moldavian prostitute he frequents who happens to be a philosophy major bearing in mind a Moldavian degree in philosophy is worth two loaves of bread and a box of condoms.

Desperate Stavros considers an offer to be involved in a television production of a pet show as that is where the sponsorship is. The masses want drivel not philosophy but again philosophy in the film is nothing but drivel.

Then a miracle happens with his book suddenly being sold out but even that is a sham.

Throughout the film we see a film crew filming the film and the director, playing himself, spouts yet more philosophy. What can I say but promise me you will never read Hegel.

A major HOOT of a film.

By the way by hooker and sinker do you really think he has sold his book out. Where are the loaves of bread and box of condoms?

The director is Stratos Tzitzis.

RKS Film Rating 88/100.

RKS 2024 Film: The Toronto International Reel Asian Film Festival: “Song For No One”

Gene (Giullian Yao Gioiello) hosts an independent radio show in Brooklyn. Who knows who is listening but for certain there are two Asian women pedalling a stationary bike in the forest listening to him sing a song about grieving and about how he is not ready to grieve.

We watch Gene on the telephone applying for a scholarship for those who have experienced the loss of a parent or guardian with little or no life insurance. I best say no more other than this short is haunting, chilling and highly effective in its exploration of grief.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 94/100.

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “Utopolis”: An Extreme Case of Migrant Bashing

Under international law Greece and all other countries having “asylum seekers” land on their shores must offer basic assistance until asylum proceedings have been completed. The cost simply can’t be deported away as deportation is not a legal option. The numbers are so staggering that Italy has outsourced migrant housing and administration to Albania!

Are the masses arriving in Greece truly refugees or are they economic migrants looking for work further north in Germany the land of milk and honey? My impression from visiting the site of a migrant camp on a Greek Aegean island is “asylum seekers” are young men looking for work in countries north of Greece and Greece is but a stepping stone due to many of its islands being proximate to the Turkish mainland and their flow assists Turkey in destabilizing Greece. Hence we are looking at an economic migrant more than a true refugee exodus.

Migrants landing in Greece receive an EU allowance, medical care and food much to the dismay of many Greeks economically struggling to make a living. There are extremes of dislike in Greece but there are moderates too.

In “Utopolis” Yiannis (Makis Papadimitriou) is a fiftyish struggling shop owner selling basic foodstuffs feeling the pain of the surge of organic food products that threaten his business. He despises migrants thinking they are thieves and a drain on the finances of Greece. Women in skimpy clothes are “asking for it.” Liberalism is a corruptive force for Yiannis.

Malls and influencers are the corruptors of Greek youth. He feels that he and decent Greeks are swept up in a wave of corrupting modernization. He is full of hatred and vitriol for all that runs contrary to his conservative if not totalitarian values.

Sam (Peter Okechkwu) is a hard-working African immigrant working at the mall construction project Utopolis. Supported by his manager he is encouraged to improve his Greek language skills and then be given more responsibility. He also works as a mechanic at a garage in the evening to supplement his income so he can pay for his education to further his life. His Russian immigrant friend Tibor (Goran Bogdan) also works at the garage.

Yiannis volunteers at a neighbourhood watch group to promote a safe neighbourhood and for 5 years has been patrolling the neighborhood. He is joined by a first timer on a nightly patrol, Sotiris (Andreas Konstantinou) who is clearly perturbed by Yiannis’ actions and ideological rants. He watches Yiannis harass and threaten a group of young immigrants peacefully talking on the streets who he admits are committing no wrong but must have it in their mind that “we” are watching them. Yiannis is looking for trouble more than attempting to prevent it.

Tibor leaves the garage promising to meet Sam later for a drink at a taverna. Yiannis and Sotiris stop for a coffee at a mobile canteen where Yiannis yet again asks owner Sofia for a date and she politely raises excuses. Sofia’s employee pleads with Yiannis to stop harassing Sofia. Just then Tibor appears arranging a date with Sofia. Yiannis overhears this and pulling out a gun from his glove compartment and in a rage hunts down this ‘illegal”. Sotiris had accidentally discovered the pistol and in disgust drove off.

What follows is pure hatred and a horrible gruesome tragedy where Tibor explains his past and how Greece offered him an escape and a chance to rebuild his life. Yiannis explains the core of his hatred. Both men have excuses for killing each other but fate horrifically intervenes.

A study in intolerance based on personal reasons and not logic. A glimpse at Greek minority extremism but moderation as well. There is no doubt Greece has a migrant issue and the futility of hatred as its solution.

Papadimitriou’s versatility as an exceptional actor is yet again on display. The theme of xenophobia is not new but here it is very clearly established with a masterful Greek stroke.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/movie-tiff/movie/15848

The Director is Vladimir Subotic.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 87/100.