Papadopoulos & Söhne

Greetings again from the darkness. There is always a risk in stamping a movie with a particular label ... "Greek" in this case. It can limit the audience to which it appeals, if there are too many in-jokes or cultural references. Writer/director Marcus Markou offers up a terrific little story that most can enjoy. It's certainly not at the level of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", but it's charming and entertaining enough.

Stephen Dillane stars as Harry, a self-made millionaire who loses everything during a financial market collapse. You will recognize Mr. Dillane as Thomas Jefferson from the HBO mini-series "John Adams". Here he plays a single dad to 3 kids: a stuttering plant loving son, a pop star-wannabe teenager daughter, and nerdy young son with a penchant for picking stock trends. Joining them is screen veteran Selina Cadell as the housekeeper/nanny. The crisis sends the family back into the life of Harry's brother Spiros, and they proceed to re-build the old family business ... Three Brother Fish & Chips.

Sure, it's a formulaic story, but the characters are interesting enough and Uncle Spiros is so full of life and spirit that he can't help but get you excited for this second chance. Watching the family re-connect with each other and their past is not just pleasant, but also well presented. Mr. Dillane is wonderful as the uppity millionaire type, however, when he gives his hospital soliloquy regarding never feeling "so alive", I do wish we had actually seen more proof of that.

While I most enjoyed the interactions between Harry and Spiros, the two musical/photo medleys seemed to interfere with the flow ... rather than shortcuts, they proved a bit annoying. However, it's always refreshing to see a movie where a family bonds together, and puts the past where it belongs.

"If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;"

(from 'If' by Rudyard Kipling)

This is a drama, not a comedy. I repeat, this is not a comedy.

This film is a film of our times. Just as is the recent 'Arbitrage' that starred Richard Gere. It could be billed as 'Arbitrage II'. This film though is not a film about the process of a fall but is rather about the aftermath.

Film opens at a very expensive house. The owner of the house also has a very expensive car, and so he should, because he is 'The European Entrepreneur of the Year'. He is Harry Papadopoulos, played by lead male Stephen Dillane. He is a self-made man who has built up his business from small beginnings. He owns popular Greek food brands but as the film opens he is on the verge of his biggest deal yet, a huge property deal. Harry has put a huge amount of borrowed money into this deal. The stock-market crashes, Harry is overextended, the business goes into administration.

Harry has a plan to borrow money to buy back his company but before that can happen his assets are seized. Rather than going through the turmoil of down-sizing, Harry ends up even worse off with no house and no car. The only asset left is his share of a chip-shop. Harry wants to sell this to start to rebuild his business empire. To do this he needs to get his brother to agree to the sale. This chip-shop is disused.

So much for the plot, but this film is not about big business, it's about people, and what people! These people are really not very nice. Harry himself is a pretty miserable, unhappy and unsympathetic figure. His children too are not very nice. There is no warmth here with these characters. They are all cold. Who cares what happens to these people? The film itself seems to be filmed rather darkly, it is not bright or light. The acting too in these early scenes seems wooden and characters seem exaggerated stereotypes.

All this changes with the entrance of Georges Corraface playing the brother Spiros Papadopolous. Now the film comes alive. Spiros is larger-than-life and a complete contrast to his bland brother Harry. While we dislike the miserable Harry, Spiros we love.

Harry is unhappy that the family has to live in the flat above the disused chip shop, while he tries to refinance his business empire. Harry is unhappy because after losing his heap of winnings, he has to start again at his beginnings, and this he does, but he does not remain silent about it.

This film is set in London, a melting-pot of immigrants. Harry with his cockney accent, is, like his brother Spiros, Greek. Now Harry has returned to the working-class area of his youth and he hates it. The themes of ethnicity, immigration and assimilation are explored as are those of being middle-class and working-class. This is a dysfunctional family with problems, now newly thrust into an old environment. Aspects of these themes are shown, sometimes with very little touches, that illustrate the changes in lifestyles. Film locations were perfect.

As said, in the earlier scenes the acting was rather wooden. The corporate figures exaggerated. This though is not important, as what this film is about, is the family. The cold air of earlier warms up. Some nice Greek music is introduced. The two brothers are played well by the two actors. Dillane playing the cold Harry has perhaps the hardest role. Corraface playing Spiros gives a tremendous performance. The children, who start this film doing some of the most irritating scenes, end up doing some rather poignant ones. All three did well.

This film is rated 15 in the UK. This is due to the bad language. Apart from children, this film with its themes of class, family and ethnicity will appeal to all. No laughs, but it is touching and thoughtful. A good film, thus 8/10.

Set in and around suburban London, PAPADOPOULOS AND SONS focuses on the fortunes of Harry (Stephen Dillane) as he falls from being an award-winning self-made millionaire into a fish-and-chip-shop owner. Along the way he re-encounters brother Theo (Thomas Underhill) with whom he has not spoken for several years, and discovers that family loyalty and daily industry are more important ingredients for happiness rather than filthy lucre.

A familiar tale, no doubt; but one that is given particular poignancy by its background. The Papadopoulos family came to Britain in the wake of the Cyprus civil war in 1974; only two of the three brothers survived, and their childhood experiences still scar their adult lives. The fact that a Turkish Cypriot family, headed by Hasan (George Savvides) owns a kebab shop opposite the fish-and- chip-shop is something rather disturbing for the Papadopulos family, reminding them of past conflicts.

Yet director Marcus Markou seems uncertain as to whether he wants to explore the family's traumas in detail or to exploit the material for knockabout laughs. Harry's business associate Rob (Ed Stoppard) comes across as a figure of fun, so obsessed with money that he cannot appreciate any other values. In the end employee Sophie (Cosima Shaw) an American divorcée becomes so tired of Rob's posturing that she quits her job and opts for a life of drudgery in the chip shop.

In the end all turns out well, as the family, their friends and the Turkish Cypriots indulge in a Greek dance in the street outside the shop. But we cannot help but feel that Markou has shied away from exploring his material and his characters in greater depth so as to provide a happy ending.

I started following Marcus Markou on Twitter when he was getting ready to film Papadopoulos and Sons and was going to be tweeting about it along the way. As an aspiring filmmaker, I thought this would be an interesting feed to follow. And indeed it was. Here we are one year and a couple months later and Marcus has taken the film to a few film festivals, screened it a couple times in London and lord knows what else. Since I don't live in a city where any of these screenings were, Marcus sent me a screener copy of the film. And these are my thoughts on it.

In a word, I LOVED it!

I had a feeling from the trailers and teasers that Marcus released, that I would like Uncle Spiros and I absolutely adored him. I've checked out George Corraface's IMDb page and I've not seen a single thing he was in, so he was "all new" to me and he was wonderful (the character as well as the actor).

My friend and I noted how much we liked Marcus' script as well. He's a great writer. Nothing ever felt awkward or forced. Very fluid and coherent dialogue throughout. And VERY funny! We had some good laughs, at the dialogue as well as some of the reactions or expressions pulled by some of the actors.

Marcus was very lucky to get a cast of some superb actors. It was about 50/50 on actors I was familiar with, and (most of) those who I wasn't familiar with did a great job. Ed Stoppard was campy and funny. Georgia Groome was snarky and fabulous. Thomas Underhill was a RIOT. And Stephen Dillane.... seriously... seeing him in a comedic role (as well as a couple of VERY moving scenes), just solidifies how multifaceted he really is.

The one that I was most impressed by (which, really, shouldn't shock me at all, given who his dad is), was Frank Dillane (who I'd never seen before). His character was so sweet and charming, and he never missed a beat. More than delivering the lines... he succeeded in delivering the feeling. Just really, really well done, Frank! I hope he's continuing on this track, because that kid definitely has the gene.

I can see why Papadopoulos and Sons won the Audience Choice Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece. Everyone should be very proud of that. It really is a delightful film. It's honest and beautiful. It's a story everyone should see.

"Papadopoulos & Sons" is a Comedy - Drama movie in which we watch a self-made millionaire losing everything in the latest banking crisis. Since he doesn't have another option he re-unites with his brother who is very different than him and they come up with the idea to re-open their abandoned fish and chip shop from where all started.

I liked this movie because it has a well-written script, an interesting plot with some very important plot twists and very good interpretations by its cast. The direction which was made by Marcus Markou who is also the writer, it was very good and he did a great job on it. I enjoyed the way he presented the stories of the brothers without giving so much information in the beginning but as the story continued he presented more. Regarding the interpretations, I have to admit that I enjoyed very much the interpretations of Stephen Dillane who played as Harry Papadopoulos and Georges Corraface who played as Spiros Papadopoulos. Some other interpretations that have to be mentioned were Cosima Shaw's who played as Sophie, Frank Dillane who played as James Papadopoulos and Thomas Underhill's who played as Theo Papadopoulos.

Finally, I have to say that "Papadopoulos & Sons" is a nice comedy movie which combines very well comedy with drama and has an interesting plot. I recommend everyone to watch this movie because I am sure that you are going to laugh a lot and you will have a great time watching it.