Park

Most movies try to distract you from everyday life and troubles in the world. For that 90 minutes to 2 hours you will spend watching a film, you are meant to forget about your bills, the job you hate, the boss you hate even more, that annoying neighbor, traffic jams, the all-talk-no-trousers-politicians (mis)representing you, the never-ending war…you get the picture. Some directors use time-travelling sports cars, slick-talking mobsters, or great battles in space to allow the viewer to take a plunge into their fantasy. There are some directors who wish to do the opposite. Some movies are meant to remind today's desensitized and mentally numbed masses of the unspeakable (and unfortunately unspoken) horrors and tribulations that plague today's global society. Director Sofia Exarchou's Park is one of these. In her first feature film, Exarchou paints a Greece on a canvas of shortcomings and short-sightedness. The colors she uses are found in a group of coming-of-age youth who spend their mischievous days in Athens' now abandoned Olympic Village.

Dmitri and Anna are among the eldest of a bunch of teenagers who spend time in the abandoned venues of Athens' 2004 Olympic Games. Dmitri is a charismatic charmer nonetheless filled with rage at his alcoholic mother and her relationship with a local marble salesman. Anna is a gymnast whose career was apparently brought to a halt by injury. As they begin a rather grotty romance, the other kids fight - sometimes seriously, sometimes not - amongst themselves, vandalise the park and make money by putting a stray dog to stud.

This is, apparently, director Sofia Exarchou's first film and, to be frank, it shows. The lack of story structure does not really matter - indeed, it draws attention to the aimlessness of the teenagers' lives - but more than one scene drags on too long (as when Dmitri and Anna party with a group of rowdy British youths) or gives the impression of actors being told "just make it up" (Dmitri and a middle-aged tourist making wolf sounds). But the film is worth watching once, although you will certainly not leave the cinema with a smile on your face.

I was actually pretty surprised I liked this film as much as I did. I turned it on not planning on finishing it, as I often do when browsing new movies to stream, but was captivated enough to sit through all 100 minutes. Other reviewers have complained that the film is depressing and lacking in plot, both of which are true... it is not a feel-good movie and does not follow the traditional structure with plot points, etc,,, rather, it introduces us to some interesting characters, their problems, and their relationships with one another. Problems arise and are dealt with, but in ways that often create more problems, and in the end nothing is really solved, as is such in life. In that way it is a true "slice-of-life" film.