Strella

I had the honour to see that movie at it's world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival. This surprising story of a man coming out of jail and falling in love with a transsexual is excellently written and surprisingly well played. Nearly all the actors are amateurs, but who needs trained actor with a cast like that: Especially Mina Orfanou in the role of 'Strella' is a revelation. Panos Koutras finds a way to tell a complicated story and to keep the audience interested in the main characters without following paths of Pedro Almodovar, though both have the wicked humor in common and both obviously love a good melodramatic story line every now and then. And he knows how to end a story, something that isn't often seen in queer movies nowadays. I sincerely hope 'Strella' will find a broader audience as it is clever and entertaining.

I'm not conservative, I'm not a puritan, I'm tolerant and liberal, but I do have some limits and this film surpassed them.

I want to emphasize I do not mean the transsexual theme, which is absolutely fine, after all I did enjoy The Crying Game. I mean the twist in the plot, which I do not want to reveal for those who haven't seen the movie but it did make a very bad impression to me. This was WAY too much and spoiled my movie experience. This was bordering sickness. I can't believe such a sick twist was airbrushed in all the reviews I happened to read about this movie. And for what is worth, I also enjoyed Oldboy.

Anyway, art is art, but be prepared. For me only redeeming aspects if you manage to take the scenario out of the picture is Mina Orfanou's performance and the competent direction.

Movies like this always confirm that the long hunt for good foreign cinema is always worth it in the end. It always helps to enter the world of film with an open-mind in order to truly appreciate what you're being shown.

Don't limit yourself to a certain type of movie trope or genre, experience the more abstract and see the beauty (if you can) in the flexibility of cinema.

I think it is a great movie and a very important piece in Greek cinematography and not only Greek, in the global context as well. The way the movie ends is also very important towards creating a better climate and alternative solutions for trans gender people. It breaks the usual pattern of ends that are common to the movies related with LGBTQI people, and I think it's very healthy. A lot of familiar faces, the stars of Koukles, Yannis Kokiasmenos' and Mina Orfanou's acting was a blast! Good luck to the director, the crew and actors, hope to see more great movies made by them. Big thanks! And p.s. to the puritan who says he is not one:)there is something more important than the so called hubris, and that is what they wanted to portray, I guess.

I never expected to see a movie in Greece about a transsexual, let alone one that was played by a real transsexual woman. That alone would have been a big deal for me. Thankfully though, there is definitely more to it. This is not a movie about being trans-gendered (or about being an ex convict for that matter), this is a movie about people seeking love in any form, about people trying to make a new start, re-defining themselves and their lives and living not according to stereotypes or social rules and notions as to what "is" right and wrong, but according to their own morality and their sense of what "feels" right and wrong. I loved the direct manner in which the "trans" issue was tackled with, I was taken with the tenderness of the love story - and of course there is that one nude scene that was really moving, honest, courageous, and magical at once. Granted, the plot twist did make me cringe a little bit, it felt somewhat "out there" and at this one instance I was like "this is at the verge of soapiness" but fortunately, it did not cross that line and the ending really did it for me after all. It is not a masterpiece, but it is a good movie, one that stands out from the bunch. Plus, Mina Orfanou is really good, especially considering she is an amateur, she captures the whole essence of the character with her performance, being charming, loving, rough and frustrated all at once.