An...

slow challenge. because it propose an old idea who, for many viewers it is seductive, fantastic and good refuge for moments of reflection - if the life was different. the virtue of What if... is the delicate measure who defines the answer. the love story, the happiness, the fight for be yourself and protect the significant the other are present and use in smart manner. and each of them does the movie as support of reflection more than artistic movie. because the mixture of crisis, the desire to remind small ordinaries truth, the atmosphere who reminds the air, spirit and fascinating beauty and poetry of the Balkans cinema are the most important pieces of a film about life in direct, honest manner. a film about choices. the final of each of choice is far to be surprising. but that is the good point. because the film remains vehicle of a delicate emotion who rediscover importance of small truths.

Christoforos Papakaliatis manages, in the darkest days of the Greek cinema, to deliver a great film that succeeds in touching the most sensitive side of the audience. Although the idea is simple and the resources used on it are minimum, yet the result is great. The acting is very good from all the actors participating and the story focuses on the lives of two young men (Dimitris and Christina) who meet in two parallel universes under different circumstances. In the first story their love is fierce and undeniable, yet they experience problems because of the economic crisis and these have an impact on them. But what *IF* they were met under different circumstances?

Papakaliatis directs this film with nerve and great talent using minimum resources but the result is magnificent. The stories take place in Athens' oldest area, Plaka and they are connected to an old film of the '60s titled "I Gini na Fovite ton Andra" which is an all time classic of the Greek Cinema. This genius connection further assists in the atmosphere and the emotional response of the audience to the protagonists' lives. Overall, this is a great film and a bright shine in the dark period of extremely low quality productions we currently live in.

Being a Greek myself i must say i'm pretty disappointed by Greece's efforts towards the seventh art the last couple of decades. Unfortunately Greece's golden age, in my opinion, stopped at late 70's to early 80's. However this, i must say, is a sparkle in the mud of the industry. Christoforos Papakaliatis being a director, writer and leading actor did a fine job being all three of them. He conducted a modern movie touching sensitive matters in Greece nowadays, like unemployment does, mixing them with the never aging love cliché. What matters in the end are the emotions you have leaving the movie, and those were strong.

a beautiful film. that is its fundamental virtue. and the motif for ignore the few errors. image, montage, music, story, the explore of different universes, the manner to create the lead characters, the splendid science to transform a not complicated story in a lovely film. a film with many references to contemporary problems and , in same measure, delicate analysis of a couple life in two interesting art of detail. a film about life, choices, happiness and Greece. the last thing, in strange way, does its message universal. but its beauty is not only artistic. it has the rare gift to become a form of experience. because it reminds small details from every viewer 's life. and that detail does it convincing at all.

In his "Notebooks", the famous conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler doesn't make much effort to conceal his dislike for Art critics. He likens the creator of Art with Faust and the critic with Mephistopheles, saying about the latter that, whatever is born of love, he considers worthy of extinction! He also notes that the main concern of the critic is to identify the "errors" in the work of Art, often failing to recognize the greatness of a true masterpiece.

Furtwängler's remarks came to my mind while observing the anxious efforts by movie critics to discover and point out the "errors" in "An...", the first feature film by Greek director Christoforos Papakaliatis (Greece, 2012). I must confess that I myself entered the theater with reservations. Would this prove to be just another cinematic experiment from one more director of television shows who fails to see the difference between the two-dimensional flat space of TV and the much more complex space-time of the cinema?

The result of the "experiment" was a pleasant surprise! We saw an authentic cinematic creation, skillfully directed and possessing a brilliantly self-consistent (albeit not entirely original) script worked well in the details. With regard to the central idea of the film, the influence from the now classic "Sliding Doors" (1998) is more than evident. Like the latter film, "An..." is a cinematic allegory on the "butterfly effect", that is, how a seemingly insignificant detail may dramatically change the order of things and the fate of people. We thus watch two alternative versions of reality evolve in parallel in time by means of two different dominoes of causality.

One basic theme is romantic relationships and their test against deterioration caused by the everyday routine in a typical marriage. Reference is made, of course, to the current economic crisis, this being one of the catalytic factors affecting relationships. Eventually, the film leaves it upon the viewer to decide which version of reality suits best to her/him, hinting, however, at the more optimistic choice (remember "Sliding Doors"!).

We left the theater with feelings of internal catharsis that any true work of Art must induce. Leaving behind for good the painful memories from the merciless (albeit directorially brilliant) "Amour" that plainly shows brutal reality without the much-needed psychological balance offered by the potentially alternative...