Every year appreciators of Greek cinema from around the country head to the Greek Film Festival, which is now a quarter of a century old.
In its 25th year, fans of the festival aren’t likely to be disappointed by the 2018 lineup – which includes 10 feature films, a range of shorts and a ‘Comedy Retrospective’.
The festival launches on October 9 in Sydney and October 10 in Melbourne and runs until October 21, before travelling to Adelaide, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth.
The Opening Night film is the traumatic drama The Last Note, which recounts the lead-up to the mass execution of 200 Greek prisoners of war in a German concentration camp. It was directed by award-winning Greek filmmaker Pantelis Voulgaris.
“Celebrating 25 years of incredible Greek stories, we are very proud to open the Festival with a cinematic masterpiece from one of the country’s finest filmmakers,” says Festival Chair, Nia Karteris. “It’s a remarkable film that not only reflects on companionship and loyalty, but pays tribute to Greece’s storied history.”
Here are the ten feature films playing. For more information, head to the official website.
- Happy Birthday (2017) – Inspired by the Athenian street demonstrations of 2008 captured in his documentary, Children of the Riots (GFF 2012), writer-director Christos Georgiou returns with a fictional exploration of a family on the precipice of being torn apart.
- Jamaica (2017) – Taking the jump from the small screen, director Andreas Morfonios’ crowd-pleasing and touching directorial debut starsGreek TV royalty Spiros Papadopoulos and Fanis Mouratidis in a bittersweet comedy about two estranged brothers who are forced to reunite after a family tragedy.
- Pity (2018) – Fresh off the international festival circuit, written by its director with co-scribe Efthimis Filippou (The Lobster, Dogtooth) this distinctly Greek black-comedy depicts a lawyer living a dark existence in a sun-drenched world.
- Polyxeni (2017) – Inspired by true events, Dora Masklavanou’s Polyxeni (writer Unfair World, GFF 2012) is an epic and engrossing exploration of trust, tragedy and love set to the backdrop of Greek aristocracy in 1970s’ Istanbul.
- Rosemarie (2017) – Winner of Best Film at the 2017 Cyprus Film Days International Festival, Adonis Florides͛’ intelligently teeters between comedy and thriller in this telling of a burnt-out soap opera writer taking inspiration͛ from his neighbours.
- Smuggling Hendrix (2018) – Winner of Best International Feature at Tribeca Film Festival, and debut feature from Marios Piperides, this touching comedy-drama heroes one man’s unwavering commitment to his dog after it runs away and crosses the UN buffer zone.
- Success Story (2017) – With some of the biggest names in Greek cinema, including Konstandinos Markoulakis (The Telemachy) and Tonia Sotiropoulou (Skyfall), Nikos Perakis’ dark comedy chronicles conspiracy and betrayal as a passionate affair devolves into a toxic battle for dominance.
- The Bachelor 2 (2017) – The blockbuster comedy hit is a uniquely Hellenic take on The Hangover franchise, reuniting the cast of the 2016 original for another night of madness and mayhem in Crete.
- The Last Note (2017) – From the award-winning Greek filmmaker Pantelis Voulgaris, the heart-rending drama recounts the lead-up to the mass execution of 200 Greek war prisoners in Chaidari concentration camp in retaliation to the ambush of four Nazi officers.
- West of Sunshine (2017) – In Australian director Jason Raftopoulos’ impressive debut feature, a working-class dad must settle a crippling debt in this punch slice of Australian social realism, starring Damien Hill (Pawno) alongside his real life step-son Ty Perham, and Kat Stewart (Offspring).
