The Lobster (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (The Killing of a Scared Deer, The Favorite)
	Actors: Colin Farrell (Phone Booth, Horrible Bosses), Rachel Weisz (The Mummy 1-2, The Fountain), Jessica Barden, John C. Reilly (Guardians of the Galaxy), Ben Wishaw (Skyfall)
	Country: IRL, GB, GR, F, NL
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 21.03.2019, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: In a society where you get hunted and turned into an animal if you can't find a partner, David (Farrell) has to comply to this rule when his wife leaves him.
Review: The synopsis of the movie should be enough to tempt you to watch it. It was for me, together with the fact that several friends told me how bizarre it was, and that the known cast guaranteed a minimum quality. This was not going a badly done small independent movie that has only its story for him. Colin Farrell is perfect in his role, supported by other good actors that all seem to be victims of the extremist rules. The dialogs and cinematography are also awesome, somewhere between a Darren Aronofsky and a Wes Anderson movie. The story is weird but you quickly get used to it. What you don't get used to is how depressing are the characters and the situation they are stuck in. Stepping back, this movie is of course a hyperbole of the social pressure in the current society on single people to find their soulmate / partner. Reversely, there can be a pressure from one's entourage to get free from a partnership's constrains to get back to the freedom of a life as single. Both side are illustrated in the movie, as when David (spoiler, highlight to read) escapes from his match-making hotel, he ends up with a rebel group of singles who don't allow relationship, under heavy consequences. And both extremes are as exaggerated and ridiculous. It is pathetic how all the wannabe-partners look desperately for a mate with the same characteristic trait: short-sighting, a limp, a nosebleed, ... The curiosity around the movie holds for about three quarters of its length but then withers down. It may have gained from being shortened from this 2-hour version. Still, such a bizarre and refreshing experience.
Rating: 7 /10

Suntan (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Argyris Papadimitropoulos
	Actors: Makis Papadimitriou, Elli Tringou, Syllas Tzoumerkas
	Country: GR
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 03.10.2016, ArteKinoFestival, Streaming, Greek version with French subtitles
Synopsis: For middle-aged Kostis (Papadimitriou), life has passed him by. As the newly appointed doctor of a tiny island, Kostis spends a dreary winter alone. By the time summer arrives, though, the island has turned into a thriving, wild vacation spot with nude beaches and crazy parties. When Kostis meets the beautiful and flirty Anna (Tringou), he falls hard for her and goes out of his way to conquer and impress her. Before long, Kostis is spending nearly all of his time getting drunk and partying. What starts as a rediscovery with his lost-long youth, though, slowly turns into an obsession as Kostis is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his Anna.
Review: The mid-life crisis taken very seriously by a Greek doctor. Confronted to sexually very opened young people, he believes finding love. The role is not convincing and many parts of the story are repetitive, especially the acting of the young group. But the acting of the doctor is convincing and therefore it deserves more than 2/10.  Otherwise, one beach, young people naked. Ok, nothing new. Possibly we get clear the boring life of people in these beach island that live only from tourism. This may be the originality of the movie.
Rating: 3 /10

Blind Sun (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Joyce A. Nashawati
	Actors:  Ziad Bakri, Mimi Denissi, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing
	Country: F, GR
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 09.07.2016, Theatre Temple du Bas, NIFFF2016
Synopsis: Ashraf Idriss (Bakri), a foreigner, is hired by a rich couple to take care of their house while they travel. Meanwhile a heat wave is striking.
Review: The heat wave and water rationing make the movie look a bit like a post-apocalyptic one, as the director explained after presenting the movie at the NIFFF. In fact very little occurs, a few dead-end encounters and some long scenes just show us the slow descent of the main character into a light madness. The movie looks good and professional but it didn't talk to me at all, and I was not the only one given the small amount of applause at the end of the projection in spite of the presence of the director. In a slightly similar style (post-apo along the ocean), I liked better Évolution although it was also very slow.
Rating: 3 /10

TETAPTH 04:45

	Also Known As: Wednesday 04:45
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Alexis Alexiou
	Actors: Stelios Mainas, Dimitris Tzoumakis, Mimi Branescu
	Country: GR, D, IL
	Genre: Drama, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 25.01.2016, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Greek/Romanian version with German subtitles
Synopsis: Stelios (Mainas) is the owner of a Jazz Club in Athens. A few years ago, through the help of his former associate Vassos (Tzoumakis), Stelios received a business loan from the Romanian in order to renovate his club. In 2010, the recession finds Stelios on the brink of bankruptcy unable to repay the loan. The Romanian (Branescu) meets with Stelios and gives him one day to come up with a solution. In a vortex of adultery, drug abuse, violence, guilt and self-deceit, Stelios has a few hours left to save his club, salvage his crumbling marriage, battle the mafia loan-sharks, baptize his employee's kid and show up at school to receive his son's report card as a responsible parent.
Review: With the crisis as background the movie shows also the core of the Greek problem, being the by-passing of state and banks. Because there is no bank able to support the businessme in Greece, these have to find other ways. And then they have also the usual problems of family and work balance. Ok. This does not make a big suspense in the pitch. The movie is also quite basic. The acting and the directing too.  When actually the pitch sells the movie as black comedy, and you loose hours to find some humour, I found out some only in the picture of the Greek crisis. Well, this is not much to make me laugh as it is in background but there must be three connotations to it only.
Rating: 2 /10

Modris (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Juris Kursietis
	Actors: Kristers Piksa, Rezija Kalnina
	Country: LV, D,GR
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 26.09.2014, Kursaal 2, FSSDZ2014, Latvia with Spanish/English subtitles
Synopsis: Modris (Piksa) is seventeen and does not know his father. He goes to school, has a girlfriend, some good friends. His gambling addiction makes him steal the money of his mother (Kalnina) and thus his relationship with mother difficult. They live alone and she doesn't miss a chance to remind him his father is in prison. When Modris pawns his mother's electric heater, trying to squeeze a win from a slot machine, she betrays him to the police and Modris is sentenced to two years probation. This is when his adventures with the Latvian justice system start.
Review: The story is inspired by a true story told to the director by a lawyer friend. I had the impression that Modris is not interested in anything but his addiction to slot machines. His mother, his girlfriend, the school, the other schoolmates. He has no friend neither. It appeared to me to be irrealistic. More realism came via the slightly shaky camera even during a static shot. The actors play well and, apart from Modris, with emotion.  I have been surprised by the director explaining in the Q&A that he wanted to have a very realistic movie. For this he used the way of work of some Nouvelle vague movies to give the script to the actors shot by shot just before the shot. I think this worked.
Rating: 4 /10

Catastroika (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Aris Chatzistefanou
	Actors: -
	Country: GR
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 02.10.2012, Ostertor, OV
Synopsis: Based on the privatisation steps to be done by Greece according to the Troika, Aris Chatzistefanou reminds the success stories on privatisation of transport systems, of water and energy supply. The question arises slowly, why shall the Greek do something that do not work?
Review: The arguments shown in the movie are part of the recent history. Therefore, the spectator is quite easily convinced. The democratic process is also questionned, with which all these privatisations have been applied by governments. Nevertheless, alternatives are not discussed at all in the movie. By chance, the Director was there and open to discussion. Even if he is left winged, the result of his research only shows that some services shall be kept on centralised hands. Whether these should be public or not is not the point of the movie.
Rating: 5 /10