Mia Italida ap' tin Kypseli

Mia Italida ap' tin Kipseli works fine as a comedy.

Antonis (Alekos Alexandrakis) is witty and effortlessly charming, though the laughs are mostly provided by the supporting characters, Polikratis (Giannis Vogiatzis) the eternal loser, Roro (Elektra Kalamidou), exuberant and full of heart, and John Parker (Giorgos Gavriilidis), naive and out of touch with reality.

The main complaint to be made about this movie is that it tries too hard to force its message, namely that Greek women are superior to foreigners. Not only does the plot involve painting the image of a - supposed to be - Italian woman with dark colours, so that Greek women appear better in comparison, it also introduces Rene (Keti Papanika), a French woman with questionable morals.

The topic which is tackled by this film is the Greek "xenophilia" (the opposite to xenophobia!). This is the tenet that anything foreign is better than the local, Greek product, person, manners, culture, etc. This was rife in Greece in the 50s and 60s and the foreign "product" in this case is an "Italian" bride-to-be brought home to his xenophilic mother by a long suffering Greek son.

Maro Kodou, as good as ever in romantic comedy roles, shines forth as the Italian bride, perfect foil to the wry Alexandrakis as groom. Numerous comical episodes unfold and the film bubbles along coming to a riotous conclusion, perfectly exemplifying the old Greek proverb "A shoe from your own country is better, even if that shoe is mended!"