Noticias

The next film from Academy Award-winner Yorgos Lanthimos just got an exciting new look. Focus Features has finally unveiled the first trailer for Bugonia, which will see him reunite with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. Lanthimos helped Stone win her second Oscar when the two worked together on Poor Things, which also stars Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe. He first worked with Plemons last year on Kinds of Kindness, but this will be his first film since The Favorite in 2018 to not feature Dafoe. Bugonia is due in theaters later this year on October 31, and the film follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap a high-powered CEO, convinced she is an alien here to destroy the Earth. If the trailer is any indication, Stone's character is in for a host of trouble. Alicia Silverstone, Stavros Halkias, and Aidan Delbis will also star in the film, which was written by Will Tracy.

In anticipation of screening at Cannes’ MipTV market, Beta Film, which handles distribution, has provided Variety exclusive access to the international trailer for Greek abduction thriller “Silent Road.”

Written by Melina Tsampani and Petros Kalkovalis and directed by Vardis Marinakis, the series dissects the entangled lives of an affluent family in Athens after a school bus carrying their children is held hostage, the kids and bus drivers inside being abducted and held for ransom. A slight nod to the eerie legend, turning on the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the town must come to grips with the event while police dig into the crime, desperate to resolve the atrocity.

“While shaping the idea for ‘Silent Road,’ we wanted to use a fairytale in the narration, as a bridge that connects the world of adults to that of the children. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a dark fairytale about trust and revenge.

Agon, Albania's Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. U.S. : None Yet. Production Company: Elefant Films

Intercultural relationships tend to be a tricky affair. There are certain idiosyncratic features pertinent to a particular group of people that may not be instantly acceptable for nonmembers of said community. Preconceptions can certainly be poisonous and dangerously hurtful, especially when two people wish to join their lives despite being from contrasting backgrounds. Unknown to most outsiders, the crude reality experienced by the Albanian Diaspora is at the core of Agon (which translates to “Sunrise”), Robert Budina’s first feature. Crafted like a crime thriller, the film is permeated with potent observations on immigration, ethnic discrimination, and above all, on remaining true to one’s origins.

Well-intentioned Saimir (Marvin Tafaj) is an Albanian man who, like many, moved to seemingly more prosperous Greece to work. Living in Thessaloniki, he fell in love with his now fiancé Elektra (Isavela Kogevina), a local woman whose father, Nikos (Antonis Kafetzopoulos), runs an automotive repair shop where he works. His ties back home however are still deeply ingrained in him which will prove to be a problem with his father-in-law’s ideologies and prejudices. Illegally smuggled across the border, Vini (Guliem Kotorri) , Saimir’s younger brother, has come to stay with the soon-to-be married couple. Resentful as he thinks his older brother is ashamed of his roots, Vini can’t keep any of the jobs Saimir finds him, not only due to his lack of skill but because of the stigma Albanians carry within Greek society.

Soon Vini, thanks to crooked family friend Beni (Laertis Vasiliou), finds himself involved with the leader of a prostitution ring named Keno (Xhevdet Jashari), a ruthless power-hungry criminal. Winning a bet against him, troublemaker Vini gets access to his brothel where he falls for exploited Majlinda (Eglantina Cenomeri), who is in turn Keno’s most beloved girl. Back at his apartment, Saimir tries to balance yet another unexpected happening, his uncle’s entire family has come to stay with them. Welcoming at first, the cultural differences become too much to handle for Elektra. Subsequently after Vini saves Majlinda’s life by hiding her from Keno, all the unfortunate circumstances intersect and come to crumble the two hapless brothers’ hopes and expectations.

Disassociated from the closely integrated Albanian community in Greece, Saimir is trying to adapt to his new environment. Persuaded by his new family, he agreed to be baptized into Christianity and changed his name, both signs that he is willing to forget where he comes from. To his very family-oriented compatriots he is denying who he is, an unforgivable offense in their eyes. Yet, at heart he is still the same guy they know, but is divided between them and the life he wants to build with Elektra. Vini, on the other hand, wants to paint but the precarious economic conditions that force him to leave his homeland won’t allow him to pursue that passion. Essentially, the brotherly bond between them and their opposite approach to their current situation clearly demonstrates the dilemmas faced by others in their place. Should one refuse to assimilate in order to honor one’s heritage or is it more convenient to blend with the dominant majority? At the most decisive instance in their joint journey, Vini denounces his brother's actions with the puncturing phrase “I don’t leave the ones I love behind,” condensing in one line the sense of longing the story conveys.

Budina’s debut is a surprisingly revelatory work that discerns numerous thematic elements in a seamless manner. He delivers a story that, despite being specific to Albanian-Greek relations, is universally relevant. Breathtaking vistas of the Greek shore collide with the gruesome underworld of illicit activity that rules the streets Thanks to this juxtaposition and the splendid acting, the characters’ tribulations serve as a frank reflection of a communal experience that expands far beyond its running time. Agon is a film that deserves to be seen outside of its homeland. Tense and rivetingly engaging, it is compelling cinematic statement on the search for identity while fighting to thrive in a foreign land.

Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards...

Isaki Lacuesta's The Double Steps has won the Golden Shell for Best Film at this year's San Sebastián Film Festival. Ronald Bergan will be pleased. In his dispatch from the festival to the House Next Door, he calls it "the best film in the main competition. It was certainly the most original and a refreshing change from the well-worn linear narrative devices of the majority of films. After 2002's Cravan vs. Cravan, his profile of Arthur Cravan, the Swiss-born nephew of Oscar Wilde who achieved fame as both a Dadaist poet and boxer, Lacuesta has now turned to Francois Augièras, the eccentric French writer, painter and explorer, and sometime lover of André Gide. The film follows two parallel lines, one about a group of men trying to locate a mythical bunker buried in the North African desert containing paintings by Augièras, and the other about the artist himself, here played by a black African,...

Celebrated Zorba The Greek director Michael Cacoyannis has been laid to rest in Athens, Greece.

The Cyprus-born filmmaker passed away in hospital on Monday after suffering complications from a heart attack and respiratory problems. He was 89.

The star's friends and family gathered at a church in Athens on Thursday to bid farewell to the film icon in an emotional ceremony.

Among the mourners were composer Mikis Theodorakis, actors Antonis Kafetzopoulos, Costas Ferris and Constantine Giannaris, and local politicians.

Greece's Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou gave a touching eulogy at the funeral, telling attendees, "Today we say goodbye to a great creator who brought Greek culture to the rest of the world."...

Filippos Tsitos, who co-wrote as well as directed, takes the ever-timely issue of tolerance to a deeper level in “Plato’s Academy.” What if “those” people, inferior beings who you feel do not even belong in your country, turn out to be … you?

Much of the conflict in the movie simmers as internal turmoil for Stavros (Antonis Kafetzopoulos), who is introduced in scene one as the weary but patient sole caretaker of his elderly mother. “Sometimes she doesn’t even know me,” he worries to the doctor at the overcrowded clinic. “Another stroke could kill her,” is the doctor’s only comment.

Stavros settles his mother to bed and escapes his apartment to motorcycle over to visit Demi, and reveals another level of his melancholy as he tries to convince his former girlfriend to come back into his life. Nor are his inner-city surroundings likely to raise his spirits; this...

Xiaolu Guo's drama "She, a Chinese" took home the Golden Leopard Saturday at the 62nd edition of the Locarno Film Festival. The film follows the misadventures of a young Chinese girl who leaves her little village to start a new life.

Aleksei Mizgiryov's "Buben, baraban" walked away with two honors: the Special Jury Prize and best director award. Meanwhile, Urszula Antoniak won the award for best first feature for "Nothing Personal."

"Nothing Personal" also won the best actress award for Lotte Verbeek. Antonis Kafetzopoulos grabbed the best actor prize for "Akadimia Platonos" by Filippos Tsitos.