Nacktbaden - Manche bräunen, andere brennen

I have been watching Greek cinema since 2009. This is the best Greek film I have watched since then. Also is the best film of Argyris Papadimitropoulos.

I was not preparing for something serious after the first 10-15 minutes of the film; after which my wife left the room, offended by the nudity. We are both Greek-born and were used to the old ways, though we were quite aware of what modernism has brought to Greek beaches. But the movie was not about nudity. It was the drama of a middle-aged man who had not tasted the joys of life, being glum and relatively ordinary. But a young Aphrodite partying with her friends caught his attention. The movie relentlessly follows his obsession, and if Nabokov invented Lolita, this story gets more intense. I would say the Greeks have learned something about tragedy. I was dazzled by the excellent photography and the gorgeous Greek island. Not an absolute masterpiece but close to one.

Kostis, a glum, middle-aged doctor, arrives with his pot-belly and receding hairline on a small Greek island to run the local clinic. It is winter and the island feels quiet and isolated - conversation for Kostis consists mainly of the local ageing Lothario promising him a United Nations of 'pussy' when the tourist season starts. Sure enough, summer brings with it hordes of tourists, and Kostis falls in with a group of twentysomethings who, when they are not partying hard in the local nightclubs, spend their time on the clothing-optional beach. They are all sleek and lovely (excepting one particularly horrendous beard) and among them Kostis sticks out like a sore thumb, but they tolerate him until he starts to drink increasingly heavily and ignore his duties at the clinic, indicating he is not as amusingly harmless as he at first appeared.

Efthymis Papadimitriou turns in a good performance, portraying well both Kostis' pathetic eagerness to please the youngsters and providing a nice line in staring-eyed obsessiveness. He is also brave, offering to the camera his doughy, hairy body which is in marked contrast to the tanned firmness of the younger actors. The other characters - both tourists and locals - are all pretty much two-dimensional stereotypes, with the exception of Anna, young leader of the group and object of Kostis' admiration. Elli Triggou manages to make her not too obnoxious.

As soon as Kostis finds happiness with the group, movie law dictates that things are not going to end well and in that the film is entirely predictable - and I found that waiting for the inevitable embarrassment to happen distracted me from the rest of the film. So I am not sure I would bother to watch it again, but it was worth seeing once.

Would have been perfect with a better and more realistic ending

This film is not a nudist film, nor will the nudist culture embrace it because of it's dark turn in the last act.

But it's exactly what a nudist film needs to be. Honest, unflinching, raw. This is an examination of what every American Nudist goes through. (to use the title of a failed film I was forced to make).

We middle-aged nudists have to come to terms with millennials calling themselves Young Naturists, who are rewriting the rules of nudist etiquette. And while they thrive, embracing the "new hedonism" which actually is pretty mild, and naturally, beautiful realized in this film, older nude beach goers like our hero Kostis feel like a relic, who no longer fit in with the younger crowd no matter how hard they try to hang on to romantic notions of love.

Kostis, a pathetic romantic fool, ends up like every unattractive romantic fool, neglecting his professional duties and spiraling downward in some misguided attempt to recapture something he never had.

And it can only end tragically. Because ultimately, romance is selfish. Romantics are self absorbed egomaniacs who are unable to see the world as it truly is. And romantic naturists are the worst offenders.

That being said, there are some weaker moments, Some scenes are repetitive and the fight choreography was awful. I was hoping it'd be even more violent, but that's my American attitude showing.

Overall, I highly recommend this film because it's the direction that any indie filmmaker interested in using nudity in their art should go. It's bold, daring and immediately relevant to our lifestyle.