marientina

Can't wait to see the works from where masters like Theo Angelopoulos, Eric Rohmer live and shoot films.

Review: Ein Lied fur Argyris (A song for Argyris)

A swiss film by Stefan Haupt
http://www.fontanafilm.ch/DOKFILME/argyris/synopsis_e.html

This documentary about a resilient greek orphan from the village of Distomo in Greece echoes a familiar story of multiple wars, famine, hardship and rough politics. For those like myself whose family name is plastered onto marble memorials in various villages in Greece, a lump in the throat may accompany you for most of the film.

In the shadow of a brutal massacre, the orphan Argyris grows up to be an educated and worldly man who becomes an activist. He seeks answers and compensation from the German government who repeatedly refuses to accept the crimes committed in Distomo. By the time an official apology comes, it seems like too little, too late for him.

Argyris speaks in German during the entire duration of the film. He was raised in an Red Cross orphanage in Switzerland after 30 members of his family and over 300 of his fellow villages were murdered, raped and dismembered by German troops. This film is eloquently not anti-German. It focuses instead on the unanswered question of a young boy (now an old man) with a backdrop of 60 years of Greek history: why do we go to war?

Review: Sugar-town (Zaharo)
A documentary by Kimon Tsakiris

This film is a funny, compassionate, yet discreetly critical documentary of a significant problem in rural Greece and its demographic conundrum. Few women of marrying age remain in rural Greece. Moreover, migration of laborers from the former Yugoslavia and from Albania have bloated the male populations of villages and small towns, yet the only women to be seen anywhere are grandmothers and old widows. Men in villages like Zaharo live and die alone and most importantly don't breed.

A few men from the village go to Russia to meet wives and the women come visit in return. The campy nature of the film earns many chuckles. Chemistry is soon defeated by language barrier, but by far the biggest offense to the women of Klin from Russia is the evident lack of any ambition and energy in the town of Zaharo. Is Zaharo's boringness caused by the chronic lack of women, or is something else going on? You can be the judge.