The Engagement Of Anna Το Προξενειό της Άννας To Proxenio tis Annas
“One of the most sensitive, human and impressive Greek films ever made.” Variety
A sensitive portrayal of a young maid, working for a fading bourgeois Athenian family. Brought to Athens from a poor village, the modest, uncomplaining, intensely religious Anna works to dutifully support her mother and siblings back home. Anna’s employers decide that she is of a marrying age and set about to find her a suitable husband. Anna is introduced to Kosmas and is given permission for an evening out. For the first time Anna sees her life in a different light. However, when she returns home she discovers that the family has changed its mind.
Director:
Pantelis Voulgaris
| Rating:
R 18+ | 1972 | Drama-Romance
|
82 minutes
| Greek dialogue with English subtitles
Brides Νύφες Nyfes
“It’s not a punishment to remember someone you love. The punishment is to forget”
A bittersweet love story set against the tribulations of a 1922 Atlantic crossing of 700 proxy brides, aboard the SS King Alexander, on their way to America. Niki, a seamstress from Samothrace, resigns herself to saving the family honour by marrying a Chicago tailor her sister previously rejected. On the journey, she meets Norman, an American war photographer disheartened by a career and a marriage in tatters. Brides will touch its audience with an unforgettable story of a doomed love affair between star crossed lovers. It follows a journey from east to west, at the same time exploring the inner journey of the people who battle the waves of agony, doubt, courage, resignation, and hope.
Director: Pantelis Voulgaris | Rating: PG | 2004 | Drama |122 minutes | Greek, English, Russian dialogue with English subtitles
Hostage * Όμηρος
Omiros
“One must live with honour, like a man… or die with honour. Yes, there’s the rub.” Sophocles
One morning, a young man boards an inter-city bus on its daily route to Thessaloniki, in northern Greece. He hijacks the bus at gunpoint and takes seven of the passengers hostage. In his left hand he holds a grenade. In the right, a Kalashnikov. This is the story of 25-year-old Albanian immigrant Elion Senia. While his demands include a ransom of half-a-million euros and safe passage to his homeland, his basic cry is simple: “I want my honour”. As events unfold, they are broadcast live on national television. For the next twenty hours, a wild, and at times bleakly comic chase, winds its way through northern Greece. The bus leads a convoy of police cars, television crews, desperate relatives, and bystanders….all the while heading towards the Albanian border….
Director: Constantine Giannaris| Rating: R 18+ | 2004 | Drama |102 minutes | Greek with Albanian dialogue with English subtitles
*Adult themes, strong language, nudity, explicit sex scenes, drug references
It’s A Long Road Όλα είναι Δρόμος
Ola ine dromos
"(The) intimate portraits of three tormented characters are filled with compassion and affection. As always with Voulgaris, technical credits are impeccable in every department." (David Stratton, Variety)
Three independent stories about three middle-aged men who arrive at crossroads in their lives. After discovering the tomb of an officer from the Hellenistic period, an archaeologist finally finds the courage to deal with his son’s suicide in the remote military camp where he served as a soldier. An elderly warden at the delta of the beautiful Evros River gets even with unscrupulous poachers preying on an endangered bird species. A factory owner in a small provincial town, filled with desperation because his wife has left him, finds the ultimate way to blow off steam in a tacky nightclub. Pantelis Voulgaris directs an excellent cast in this critically acclaimed exploration of the human soul.
Director: Pantelis Voulgaris| Rating: R 18+ | 1998 | Drama |118 minutes | Greek dialogue with English subtitles
Liza And All The Others * Η Λίζα και Όλοι οι Άλλοι
I Liza kai Oloi oi Alloi
“Seeking young, handsome and normal guy, for over two months…”
Liza, a young attractive journalist, is the archetype of the designer lifestyle generation. As the narrator of the film, she reveals her unsuccessful quest for the ideal male partner. Liza’s routine indulgence in the incidental pleasures of life is complicated by her constant preoccupation with deconstructing the behaviour and psyche of the opposite sex. Her relationship with the suave yet domineering Gianni perpetuates her insecurities and seems doomed to fail. Then she meets Paris, the owner of a central Athens bar. The disarmingly charming Paris takes Liza’s heart, and body, to places it’s never been and has her asking whether she has finally found Mr Right…
Director: Nikos Perakis| Rating: R 18+ | 2003 | Comedy - Romance |104 minutes | Greek dialogue with English subtitles
*Adult themes, strong language, nudity, explicit sex scenes, drug references
Real Life * Αληθινή Ζωή
Alithini Zoi
“We are what our families and lives make us… no-one escapes destiny.”
As gorgeous as the society it portrays, “Real Life” offers a glimpse into the world of the idle and decadent elite of Athens, where the young and beautiful amuse themselves with the single-minded pursuit of their own pleasure. When one young man born into this maelstrom of privilege and vanity tries to break away from it all, he soon realizes how enmeshed he is in this self-indulgent, superficial world, his fate predetermined by class and his family’s dark history.
Dimitri Eipides, Toronto International Film Festival 2004, website
Director: Panos Koutras| Rating: R 18+ | 2004 | Drama - Fantasy | 112 minutes | Greek with French dialogue and English subtitles
*Adult themes, strong language, nudity, explicit sex scenes, drug references
The Counterfeit Coin # Η Κάλπικη Λίρα
I Kalpiki lira
The 50th anniversary of the release of one of the most significant films in Greek cinema.
The journey of a counterfeit gold coin and the people who encounter it.
Four stories: humorous, romantic, dramatic. Initially, the coin is made by an honest engraver (Vasilis Logothetidis), who is seduced by the charms of a young widow (Ilia Livikou). The coin then passes into the hands of a beggar (Mimis Fotopoulos) and a prostitute (Sperantza Vrana), moving on to the orphaned daughter of a poor painter and their miserly landlord (Orestis Makris) and finally, a newly-married couple (Elli Lambeti and Dimitris Horn) struggling to make ends meet. A clever and effective screenplay, superb directing and exceptional performances make for an appealing and unforgettable film.
Four stories in a film which marks the height of Giorgos Tzavellas’ success. A prestigious film featuring most of the stars of that era, this gem received accolades from audiences in Greece and abroad.
Director: Giorgos Tzavellas| Rating: R 18+ | 1955 | Comedy / Drama | 127 minutes | Greek dialogue with English subtitles
# Special event
America America # Αμέρικα Αμέρικα
America America
"Elia Kazan gives a penetrating, thorough and profoundly affecting account of the hardships endured and surmounted at the turn of the century by a young Greek lad in attempting to fulfill his cherished dream --- getting to America…” - Variety
America America portrays the odyssey from Asia Minor to America of an innocent young man escaping the horrors of the times. Raised in an Anatolian village, Stavros is sent to Constantinople with the family’s jewels and prayers, however he harbours a dream - to live in America. In Constantinople he is exposed to the harsher realities of life - unemployment, homelessness, muggings, murder and prostitutes. Stavros escapes by swindling a ticket to America and assuming the identity of an Armenian shoe shine boy. Armed with a new name and a job he settles in New York and succeeds in bringing his family to the land of hope and opportunity.
Director: Elia Kazan| Rating: R 18+ | 1963 | Drama | 174 minutes | English
Stone Years Πέτρινα Χρόνια
Petrina Hronia
”A film that is full of tenderness and hope, based on true events and real people. and that at the same time chronicles the alienation of a country and of a couple. We found STONE YEARS, quite simply, a deeply moving, heartwarming film.” LE MONDE
Told through the eyes of struggle and heartache, Stone Years is a captivating story about two ordinary people yearning love and freedom.
Set over 20 years in post war Greece, wracked by political division, persecution, intimidation and a dictatorship, the film follows the extraordinary and enduring relationship between Eleni and Babi, two young political activists of the Left. Based on a true story, Stone Years places the essential human elements of their relationship against a backdrop of fear, threats, separation, imprisonment and years of being on the run.
One of Voulgaris’ most moving and critically acclaimed works, Stone Years explores the everyday struggle that Greeks endured when censorship and political repression altered the social fabric of their country.
Director: Pantelis Voulgaris| Rating: MA 15+ | 1985 | Drama | 135 minutes | Greek dialogue with English subtitles
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow Τριλογία:Το Λειβάδι που Δακρύζει
Trilogia: To Livadi Pou Dakrizi
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow is Theo Angelopoulos’ first feature since Eternity and a Day which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1998.
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow is a visually poetic film, rich in powerful imagery. It sees a bitter personal tragedy unfold against the major events of early twentieth century Greece. Russian-born Eleni is adopted by a Greek family which flees to Greece during the period of the Russian revolution. She elopes with Alexis, the son of her much older fiancé Spyros. The two arrive in Thessaloniki, where Alexis continues his career as a musician whilst Eleni raises their two sons. Some years later, Alexis leaves for America seeking a better life for his family, however Eleni cannot join him. She is stranded in Greece to be exposed to the ravages of World War II, the horrors of the civil war and a fate unknown.
Director: Theo Angelopoulos | Rating: R 18+ | 2004 | Drama/Romance | 162 minutes | Greek dialogue with English subtitles
Testosterone * Τεστοστερόνη
Testosteroni
“The day will come, and this is science speaking, when we won’t have to go running after women…they will be running after us”
This film operates on many levels: a thriller, whose protagonist is trapped on a secluded island of women; a satire of young people’s sexual relations in today’s society; or a study of the age-old battle of the sexes in the context of modern society.
Petros visits his native island to borrow his late grandfather’s VW Beetle for some R&R back on the mainland. Whilst staying with his eccentric, free-thinking aunt, he finds himself pursued by the island’s women and he fears he is the only man left! What initially appears to be a young man’s dream quickly turns into a salacious nightmare.
Director: George Panousopoulos| Rating: R 18+ | 2004 |
Comedy – Satire |
95 minutes | Greek dialogue with English subtitles
*Adult themes, strong language, nudity, explicit sex scenes, drug references
