2015 | GreekFilm Festival Schedule

Exhibition – Crossing Borders

SYN, the Edinburgh-based arts group present their second Filmhouse exhibition, a consideration of borders, boundaries, migration, refugees and refuge. SYN are inventing the Greco-Scot, looking with a somewhat Greek perspective at this place and at all of us. Scotland is growing gradually Greeker, Greeks become slightly more Northern. 

FRIDAY 27 NOVEMBER

URANIA

Costas Kapakas • Greece/Italy 2006 • 1h 40m • Digital • Greek with English subtitles.
Cast: Aris Tsapis, Taxiarhis Hanos, Yorgos Souxes 

It’s 1969.  Greece has The Colonels but the village has matters of real importance on its mind. The lads are saving up to lose  their virginities with professional help – the only way, so they think. But the moon landing will be televised and the village has no TV set. Should they buy a TV instead? But TV is run by the Colonels. Nobody’s father wants the Colonels; everybody’s mother wants a TV. Can little boys have it all? Can grown men behave? Yes and No maybe, but not necessarily in that order.

Followed by a Q&A with director Costas Kapakas 

SATURDAY 28 NOVEMBER 

Little England Mikra Anglia 

Pandelis Voulgaris • Greece 2013 • 2h 12m • DCP • Greek with English subtitles
Cast: Penelopi Tsilika, Sofia Kokkali, Aneza Papadopoulou 

At last – a big sweeping romantic historical drama from Greece, where history has never lacked drama. Little England is the island of Andros, whose shipping once rivalled England’s. The islandmen rule the waves, the women run almost everything else. This is a story of star-crossed lovers, star-crossed sisters and, of course, Mothers - Patriarchy with added matriarchs on one small island. Ioanna Karystiani’s novel has been crying out for filming since its publication in 1997 and here it is, directed by her husband Pandelis Voulgaris in his most accessible and involving film. 

Best Film, Hellenic Academy Awards 2013 

SUNDAY 29 NOVEMBER

XENIA

Panos Koutras • Greece/France/Belgium 2014 • 2h12m • DCP • Greek with English subtitles.
Cast: Kostas Nikouli, Nikos Gelia 

Two half-Greek brothers. The impulsive one wants to search for their father. The stubborn Odysseus refuses. So off they go on an Odyssey from one end of Greece to the other. It’s the journey of their lives. They take along a very convincing rabbit and its doppelganger, a repertoire of cabaret songs (with actions) which life is unlikely to have fully prepared you for, and much baggage. They find Greece and a possible father. They prefer Greece. They accept their baggage. Not all Odysseys have to take you home, or to end. 

Hellenic Academy Awards 2015: Best Film, Best Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actor. 

MONDAY 30 NOVEMBER

LOBSTER

Yorgos Lanthimos • Ireand/ UK/ Greece/ France/Netherlands 2015 • 1h 58m • Digital • English/Hiberno English/ American
Cast: Colin Farrell, Olivia Coleman, Ashley Jensen, Angeliki Papoulia, John C. Riley 

Lanthimos started off, more or less, with a masterpiece (Dogtooth) and now we all think we know what a Lanthimos film is like. We might be wrong. Lobster assembles an international cast in Co. Kerry and off we go on a journey through a maze of relationship events and non-events.There’s an Irish-looking American actor called Riley, the whole thing is in English but is very Greek, there are Irish overtones and Anglo-American undertones. Chances are, you will be surprised – enjoyably.

Jury Prize, Cannes 2015 

TUESDAY 1 DECEMBER

THE FAN Anemistiras

Dimitris Bitos •Greece 2015 • 1h 30m • DCP • Greek with English subtitles.
Cast: Irini Drakou, Yorgos Valais, Danae Androulaki. 

In a kind of intense fairy tale, a little girl who has had enough takes over. She doesn’t see why her parents cannot ignore their apparently trivial discontents, pull themselves together and behave. Little girls are expected to behave, why not grown-ups? The girl has a plot device up her sleeve, her parents are too surprised to resist and it turns out that they quite like behaving but had almost forgotten how to do it in a humane and surprising film that could shake us all up a little.

The Edinburgh Greek Festival Trust
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