Hostage

Όμηρος
Omiros

“One must live with honour, like a man… or die with honour. Yes, there’s the rub.” -- Sophocles.

The true story of a bus hijacking in northern Greece provides the inspiration for this human drama, which centres on the heated issue of contemporary Greek-Albanian relations.
   In the spring of 1999, a young Albanian, Flamour Pisli, took over an intercity bus and demanded a ransom and safe passage back to his country. In this tale, as soon as Albanian anti-hero Senia boards the bus in the countryside and holds it up, the racial animosity toward him is palpable. He claims that he has done nothing wrong during his five years in Greece and that two local policemen have framed him. His justification for his actions is simple: “I want my honour.” He lets most of the passengers off the bus, however as it trundles towards the Albanian border, his flashbacks captivate us.
   At first, he is deported and then rejected by his prospective in-laws when he tries to marry his girlfriend. Stealing back into Greece, he falls foul of the local police, with whom he had been involved in weapons smuggling, when one of them realizes that Senia slept with his wife. These flashbacks are intertwined with dream-like sequences centering on the hostages: a wife running off with her lover; a drug addict who has missed his supplier; a young lesbian separated from her lover; and a priest’s daughter leaving her family.
   As the bus crosses the Albanian border, we are confronted with a mother’s emotional appeal to her son - and a gripping twist to the story.


Director: Constantine Giannaris | Rating: R 18+ | 2004 | Drama/Romance | 102 minutes | Greek with Albanian dialogue and English subtitles

Director's Bio - Constantine Giannaris

Constantine Giannaris was born in Athens, Greece in 1959. Giannaris moved to England in 1976 and graduated from the University of Keele (combined honours History/Economics). He completed his postgraduate studies at the University of Birmingham (in Greek-Russian post war relations).

PRINCIPAL CAST

Stathis Papadopoulos (Elion, hostage taker)
Theodora Tzimou (Iliana, young mother/passenger)
Giannis Stankoglou (Grigoris, passenger)
Minas Hatzisavvas (police officer)
Arto Apartian (Giannis, bus driver)
Marilou Kapa-Valeonti (Angeliki, passenger)
Konstantina Angelopoulou (Kelly, passenger)
Antonis Dourakis (Orpheas, passenger)
Manolos Afoliano (Jack, passenger)
Rajmonda Bulku (Mira, Elion’s mother)
Dricim Djepa, Ersi Malikenzou, Constantine Syradakis
 

DIRECTOR's – PREVIOUS FILMS

1989 Jean Genet is Dead
Berlin Film Festival, Panorama 1989

1989 Trojans
Teddy Award Panorama, Berlin Film Festival 1990
Best Short Film Award, Cork International Film Festival 1990
Best Short Film Award and International Film Jury Award, Da Sadoma a Hollywood Film Festival, Turin 1990

1990 Disco’s Revenge

1990 Silences

1991 A Matter of Life and Death

1991 Greeks

1991 North of Vortex
Silver Plaque Award for Best Short Drama, Chicago International Film Festival 1992

1991 Caught Looking
Teddy Award Panorama, Berlin Film festival 1991
Jury Award, Cinema et Homosexualite Festival, Brussels 1991

1991 Out of Tuesday

1992 A Desperate Vitality – The Films of Pier Paolo Pasolini

1995 A Place in the Sun
Drama Short Film Festival, Best Film Award (national competition)
1995 ETEKT (Greek Film and TV Technicians Union) Award

1995 3 Steps to Heaven
Quinzaine des realisateurs, Cannes Film Festival 1995
Best Director Award, Mystfest Cattolica Italia 1995

1998 From the Edge of the City
Hellenic National Film Awards 1999, 2nd Prize for Best Feature Film
Berlin Film Festival Panorama, 1999

2001 One Day in August
Hellenic Association of Film Critics Best Film Award
Berlin International Film Festival 2002 (in competition)

2004 Hostage
 

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL SCREENINGS

Berlinale 2005, 55th Berlin International Festival 2005 (Panorama Special)
31st Seattle International Film Festival 2005 (Contemporary World Cinema)
40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2005 (Horizons Program)


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