Papadopoulos & Sons

"If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;"

(from 'If' by Rudyard Kipling)

This is a drama, not a comedy. I repeat, this is not a comedy.

This film is a film of our times. Just as is the recent 'Arbitrage' that starred Richard Gere. It could be billed as 'Arbitrage II'. This film though is not a film about the process of a fall but is rather about the aftermath.

Film opens at a very expensive house. The owner of the house also has a very expensive car, and so he should, because he is 'The European Entrepreneur of the Year'. He is Harry Papadopoulos, played by lead male Stephen Dillane. He is a self-made man who has built up his business from small beginnings. He owns popular Greek food brands but as the film opens he is on the verge of his biggest deal yet, a huge property deal. Harry has put a huge amount of borrowed money into this deal. The stock-market crashes, Harry is overextended, the business goes into administration.

Harry has a plan to borrow money to buy back his company but before that can happen his assets are seized. Rather than going through the turmoil of down-sizing, Harry ends up even worse off with no house and no car. The only asset left is his share of a chip-shop. Harry wants to sell this to start to rebuild his business empire. To do this he needs to get his brother to agree to the sale. This chip-shop is disused.

So much for the plot, but this film is not about big business, it's about people, and what people! These people are really not very nice. Harry himself is a pretty miserable, unhappy and unsympathetic figure. His children too are not very nice. There is no warmth here with these characters. They are all cold. Who cares what happens to these people? The film itself seems to be filmed rather darkly, it is not bright or light. The acting too in these early scenes seems wooden and characters seem exaggerated stereotypes.

All this changes with the entrance of Georges Corraface playing the brother Spiros Papadopolous. Now the film comes alive. Spiros is larger-than-life and a complete contrast to his bland brother Harry. While we dislike the miserable Harry, Spiros we love.

Harry is unhappy that the family has to live in the flat above the disused chip shop, while he tries to refinance his business empire. Harry is unhappy because after losing his heap of winnings, he has to start again at his beginnings, and this he does, but he does not remain silent about it.

This film is set in London, a melting-pot of immigrants. Harry with his cockney accent, is, like his brother Spiros, Greek. Now Harry has returned to the working-class area of his youth and he hates it. The themes of ethnicity, immigration and assimilation are explored as are those of being middle-class and working-class. This is a dysfunctional family with problems, now newly thrust into an old environment. Aspects of these themes are shown, sometimes with very little touches, that illustrate the changes in lifestyles. Film locations were perfect.

As said, in the earlier scenes the acting was rather wooden. The corporate figures exaggerated. This though is not important, as what this film is about, is the family. The cold air of earlier warms up. Some nice Greek music is introduced. The two brothers are played well by the two actors. Dillane playing the cold Harry has perhaps the hardest role. Corraface playing Spiros gives a tremendous performance. The children, who start this film doing some of the most irritating scenes, end up doing some rather poignant ones. All three did well.

This film is rated 15 in the UK. This is due to the bad language. Apart from children, this film with its themes of class, family and ethnicity will appeal to all. No laughs, but it is touching and thoughtful. A good film, thus 8/10.

Despite not being anywhere near the league of great film, still it is one of the better British films of recent times, in the sense that we get to escape from the council estates and the thugs they supposedly breed as well as the horrible language that makes one wanting to have a shower after a screening.

We follow the story of two brothers who migrated from Cyprus to England, one of whom became a millionaire and fully embraced the British ways whilst the other did not do so well and remained faithful to his routes and culture.

There is real warmth conveyed in this film and the importance of family is never underestimated, again a non-entry in many British films. In a short space of time we undergo a journey of emotions, hopes, aspirations and sadness that is a part in an immigrant's life.

A man goes from top to bottom and struggles to come to terms with the new reality of both the situation and the fact that he has to give up his ultra posh life and move to a lower middle class neighbourhood. Whilst we can rush to assume him as a snob, the truth is that he isn't; the issue he has is not so much encountering his brother and the old life, but the fact that as far as he was concerned all this was left behind him and simply moved on to a different place.

Despite the presence of elements that could potentially have made this a gem of a film, somehow it is rather corny (or simply not aimed high enough) and that reduces it to a warming, charming family comedy.

Greetings again from the darkness. There is always a risk in stamping a movie with a particular label ... "Greek" in this case. It can limit the audience to which it appeals, if there are too many in-jokes or cultural references. Writer/director Marcus Markou offers up a terrific little story that most can enjoy. It's certainly not at the level of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", but it's charming and entertaining enough.

Stephen Dillane stars as Harry, a self-made millionaire who loses everything during a financial market collapse. You will recognize Mr. Dillane as Thomas Jefferson from the HBO mini-series "John Adams". Here he plays a single dad to 3 kids: a stuttering plant loving son, a pop star-wannabe teenager daughter, and nerdy young son with a penchant for picking stock trends. Joining them is screen veteran Selina Cadell as the housekeeper/nanny. The crisis sends the family back into the life of Harry's brother Spiros, and they proceed to re-build the old family business ... Three Brother Fish & Chips.

Sure, it's a formulaic story, but the characters are interesting enough and Uncle Spiros is so full of life and spirit that he can't help but get you excited for this second chance. Watching the family re-connect with each other and their past is not just pleasant, but also well presented. Mr. Dillane is wonderful as the uppity millionaire type, however, when he gives his hospital soliloquy regarding never feeling "so alive", I do wish we had actually seen more proof of that.

While I most enjoyed the interactions between Harry and Spiros, the two musical/photo medleys seemed to interfere with the flow ... rather than shortcuts, they proved a bit annoying. However, it's always refreshing to see a movie where a family bonds together, and puts the past where it belongs.

Such a lovely unexpected delight. A film about love, family, money and getting perspective on life. Well worth a watch.

I started following Marcus Markou on Twitter when he was getting ready to film Papadopoulos and Sons and was going to be tweeting about it along the way. As an aspiring filmmaker, I thought this would be an interesting feed to follow. And indeed it was. Here we are one year and a couple months later and Marcus has taken the film to a few film festivals, screened it a couple times in London and lord knows what else. Since I don't live in a city where any of these screenings were, Marcus sent me a screener copy of the film. And these are my thoughts on it.

In a word, I LOVED it!

I had a feeling from the trailers and teasers that Marcus released, that I would like Uncle Spiros and I absolutely adored him. I've checked out George Corraface's IMDb page and I've not seen a single thing he was in, so he was "all new" to me and he was wonderful (the character as well as the actor).

My friend and I noted how much we liked Marcus' script as well. He's a great writer. Nothing ever felt awkward or forced. Very fluid and coherent dialogue throughout. And VERY funny! We had some good laughs, at the dialogue as well as some of the reactions or expressions pulled by some of the actors.

Marcus was very lucky to get a cast of some superb actors. It was about 50/50 on actors I was familiar with, and (most of) those who I wasn't familiar with did a great job. Ed Stoppard was campy and funny. Georgia Groome was snarky and fabulous. Thomas Underhill was a RIOT. And Stephen Dillane.... seriously... seeing him in a comedic role (as well as a couple of VERY moving scenes), just solidifies how multifaceted he really is.

The one that I was most impressed by (which, really, shouldn't shock me at all, given who his dad is), was Frank Dillane (who I'd never seen before). His character was so sweet and charming, and he never missed a beat. More than delivering the lines... he succeeded in delivering the feeling. Just really, really well done, Frank! I hope he's continuing on this track, because that kid definitely has the gene.

I can see why Papadopoulos and Sons won the Audience Choice Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece. Everyone should be very proud of that. It really is a delightful film. It's honest and beautiful. It's a story everyone should see.