Σπιρτόκουτο
Spirtokouto

Witness a "saintly Greek family" go straight to hell in a story that will leave you choking on your souvlaki. An odious, foul-mouthed clan rip their lives apart in the maddening heat of an Athenian summer. Their apartment is transformed into a battleground as violence, abuse and total mayhem reach fever pitch as the characters go in and out of the "matchbox" with burning despair.

2003/ Drama / Rating:R18 / Director: Yannis Economidis

Full detail:

A family massacre starring cafeteria owner Dimitris is not long in breaking out and in the space of just one day everything is blown sky high. The apartment in the working-class suburb of Korydallos is transformed into a battleground, violence reaches fever pitch and the characters go in and out of the "matchbox" with burning despair. The wife Maria, the fiendish kids, the rest of the low lives, everyone ripping into each other and the vociferous paterfamilias in the middle. As night comes the "saintly Greek family" goes to hell. Round two begins, the brutality is served up in even greater doses and there appears to be no end to Dimitris' fall.

"WAR Within Four Walls"

"They are low class dogs, and I say that with love. If it was set in Sweden it would be all meaningful silences. But here life is straight and brutal and more honest." Director Y. Economidis

"It plays more entertainingly than it sounds." Derek Elley, Variety.com

"A dysfunctional family explodes in Matchbox" (SF Weekly.com)

Winner - Greek Film Critics Association Award - 2003 Thessaloniki International Film Festival

Cast: Errikos Litsis, Eleni Kokkidou, Costas Xykominos, Yannis Voulgarakis, Angeliki Papoulia

Credits:

Screenplay: Yannis Economidis, Lenia Spyropoulou, Cinematography: Dimitris Horianopoulos, Editing: Spyros Kokkas, Sound: Dinos Kittou, Sets: Georgia Demiri, Costumes: Georgia Demiri, Producer: Yannis Economidis, Takis Veremis, Giorgos Lykiardopoulos, Production: Cassandra Films, Strada Productions, X-Rated Films S.A, Kino S.A, Max Productions S.A, Studio ERA, Greek Film Centre

Festivals:

.International Film Festival of India 2003
.8th Pusan International Film Festival, South Korea 2003
.Montreal Film Festival, USA 2003

Yannis Economidis

Yannis Economidis was born in Limassol, Cyprus in 1967 and
studied film in Athens. A documentary and award-winning short-film director.
Matchbox is his first feature.

Filmography:

2003 MATCHBOX, 35mm, 81'
1995 THE LIFE YOU'D LIKE, documentary, 16mm, 65'
1994 JUST SMELLING THE JASMINE, documentary, 16mm, 30'
1992 GRADUAL IMPROVEMENT IN THE WEATHER, 35mm, 20'
1990 GOOD MORNING NIGHT, documentary, 16mm, 15'
1989 EPISODE, 16mm, 7'

Reviews:

The Guardian, November 2003

The success of A Touch of Spice comes as Greek film is on something of a roll, with a new generation of directors taking a cleaver to that most revered of Greek sacred cows, the family.

None more so than in Matchbox, in which a grasping, foul-mouthed clan tear themselves and their friends' lives apart in the maddening heat of an Athenian summer. While the film has been cheered as a revolution in Greek filmmaking at the Thessaloniki film festival, and an antidote to the schmaltz of My Big Fat Greek Wedding,…

Its young Cypriot director, Yannis Economidis, who has been compared to a younger Mike Leigh on speed, makes no apology for his liberal and imaginative use of the Greek swear word malaka. "Let's face it, the characters in the film are malakas," he said. "They are low-class dogs, and I say that with love. If it was set in Sweden it would be all meaningful silences. But here life is straight and brutal and more honest.

"To me it is a political film-the last 20 years of Greek democracy is all there inside this flat, the racism, sexism, chauvinism and materialism.

"People laugh at me when I say it, but to me it is a film about love. It is about a man who loves his woman and he is suffering for it."


By Kostas Terzis, President of the Greek Film Critics Association

"A film that risks much and dares to contest with the flammable Greek family, capturing it from the inside of a matchbox - behind the four walls of a Greek home. The film is distinguished for its methodical organization of its claustrophobic structure, for its systematic script -which the actors' contribution brought to life- and its passionate and climaxing narration.

The moment when the action seems to become encaged in the "matchbox", it reveals Greek society, portraying and accentuating -with modern cinematography- the hollow and especially dramatic clashes of everyday life".