No Budget Story

With 'no budget story' Haralampidis tries not just to make a low cost story (The whole budget was just 15000$). He succeeds in two things. First to give a lesson to all these who think that cinema is just an industry, a way to make money, so, if somebody spends a lot of money in making a movie, he'll be a success. These people have forgotten the relation between art and cinema. The other target of Haralampidis was to pay a tribute to all the great directors that he is fond of, like Scorceze, Felini, or Bunuel. In the film, he actually makes us feel the desperation and the hope of a young director that cares only for the artistic side of cinema, and can not find any support or somebody at least to understand him. For me is an example of how movies should be made. A study on the cinema of the great directors and not on the cinema that belongs to Hollywood (and all the others that would like to be Hollywood), where only money talks. A film that you can watch it a lot of times and every time it will give you something new, real artistic movie. Congratulations to Haralampidi.

This movie is worth only as an example of a low to zero budget attempt to make a movie. But that is about the only interesting thing here. From any other aspect, the performance is really poor -- especially, the scenario is close to nothing, and the final element of plot, related to drugs, is rather confusing for the viewer and in any case does not make any contribution to the movie itself.

It is really a pity that the main female actress ("Maria") is not used to the full extent of her capabilities, and the timid attempt to create an atmosphere of a love-story is desperately lacking strength.

In sum, the movie presents a very limited interest from every point of view, and can in no way be considered as representative of modern Greek cinema.

Irinaios is a young director. He believes that one day his talent will be recognized and he will become very famous but, for the time being, he is broke. Forced to find a job in order to pay the rent, he meets Tolis. Tolis claims to be rich and willing to fund Irinaios' film. Maria lives next door to Irinaios and he falls in love with her. Since she is an actress, he promises to let her star in his movie. So, everything seems to be set for his dream to come true. Tolis, though, has some other things in mind...

With his debut film, Renos Haralambidis demonstrates his love for cinema: "No budget story" is full of references to his favorite directors, actors etc. It is clearly influenced by Alexnadre Rockwell's "In the soup". In fact, Haralambidis almost copies Rockwell's film but eventually creates something very personal, a film about a young man's desire for artistic creation, for fame and love. Partly autobiographical, the film is shot in black and white, which really suits the "underground" feeling that emanates from it. Acting is pretty good, especially Yorgos Voultatzis. The pace is a bit slow but it never becomes boring. 87 minutes is as long as it should have been.

I really enjoyed the movie! There are a lot of funny moments but in the end I was left with a bittersweet feeling because Irinaios (which is -by the way- Renos Haralambidis' true name) is partly an ambitious dreamer and partly a looser with whom you can't help sympathizing.

This is a very nice film for every cinema lover but it does not appeal to mainstream tastes. Give it a try!