Category Archives: film

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “The Best of All Worlds”: Portuguese Disaster Movie

In 1775 one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history measuring 8.5-9 on the Richter scale devastated Lisbon. Its centre was in the ocean some 325 kilometres off the coast of the island of Madeira. A tsunami followed. Seismologists predict another similar powerful earthquake in Portugal and the sole question is when. Consider its powerContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “The Best of All Worlds”: Portuguese Disaster Movie”

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “Giannis in the Cities”: Chilling and Legitimate Child Brutality

“Giannis in the Cities” is a wounding and penetrating journey into “Childcare Cities” established during the Greek Civil War as told through a “survivor” author Yannis Atzakas. There are haunting similarities to the establishment of “residential schools” in Canada amounting to little more than kidnapping of Aboriginal children for purposes of assimilation into colonial correctnessContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “Giannis in the Cities”: Chilling and Legitimate Child Brutality”

RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “Meat”: Twice Out of Control and Twice Dead

Takis (Aky Ilaskarazisis) raises sheep in a small Greek village. Takis has a longstanding feud with Kyriakou (Dimitris Xanthopoulos) over land ownership.  A situation of two hot heads colliding in a violent verbal spar starting the film with Kyriakou without much community support just being released from three years in prison. Community standards run highContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: “Meat”: Twice Out of Control and Twice Dead”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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