La photo

I fotografia (The Photograph) is one of the most highly acclaimed Greek films but very few people have actually heard of the movie (even in its country of origin). What I enjoyed in Papatakis' film is the representation of the Greek society during the time when the Junta (Military dictatorship) was already governing the country (1971-1974). Except from the obvious focus on human obsessions and the psychological thriller turn of the film, we could clearly see the political comment on how hard it was to survive in Greek circles (within the country and abroad) if you were considered to be a communist.In Kastoria, the city where the story begins, all these banners in favour of the regime had "Greece of Greek Christians" or "Country, Religion, Family" written on them. These were the main slogans of the dictators. I found the storyline about the protagonist's (Yerasimos) love of an idea (a photograph)quite metaphorical and parallel to the Greek population's blindness towards the Junta.As Ilias characteristically says to his mother towards the end of the film "what we love about someone is their lie".

The scenario: Kastoria, a small town in Macedonia, Greece, not far from the borders with Albania and North Macedonia. Ilias Apostolou. In his twenties, has been unemployed; he lives with his mother Soula in borderline poverty (Soula does outside sewing work for a living). We are under the brutal, sadistic right wing regime of the Colonels that overthrew the constitutional government in 1967 and lasted until 1974, unabashedly supported by the US. We witness the brutal chasm between the haves and the have nots in Kastoria; Ilias and his mother belong to the latter and their situation is worsened by the fact that Ilias' late father was a Communist militant.

Ilias has a distant relative in France, Gerasimos, who makes a decent living as a furrier and even owns a house in the periphery of Paris, in a squalid and unsafe neighborhood. Before traveling to France, Ilias picks up on the street the photo of an attractive young woman. He is received with initial distrust by Gerassimos but gradually a friendship develops among the two men. The plot: Ilias invents a perfectly unmotivated lie about the photograph. For the rest of the movie the lie snowballs into bigger and bigger falsehoods, with dire consequences.

On its face, this film could be classified as a black comedy (as in the episode with "the ecologists"). On second thought, however, ir is something else. It centers on the plight of emigrants, born on wrong side of the tracks and forced to leave their country for politic or economic reasons or just to to evade daily (and lifetime) abuse. In their new country their status as illegals makes them vulnerable to the authorities. They are occasionally helped by relatives or strangers, but good samaritans are under the shadow of monstrous laws like one in France threatening five years in jail and a fine of 30,000 euros for "assisting an illegal immigrant." Finally, even in the (very few) cases where legal status is attained, the immigrant is cut off from his own roots and culture, discriminated against and isolated. All these themes are touched upon without preaching in this exceptional film.

"The Photograph" has been cited by Greek critics as one of the best Greek fims of all time. It is undeniably flawed: much of the dialogue sounds unnatural, or even post-dubbed, and Aris Retsos gives an awkward, weird performance - at times he seems to be playing someone mentally handicapped, although at other times he is as sharp as a nail. Hristos Valavanidis, in a thankfully small part, gives a comically overwrought performance. But the main story, once it kicks in, is powerful, and Christos Tsagas' performance is remarkable. The film came out at a time when the Greek movie industry was, by all accords, dominated by cheap commercial cinema on one side and inaccessible arthouse cinema on the other, and it is notable for being far removed from either extreme; it carves its own path. **1/2 out of 4.