La dernière note

"The Last Note" is a Drama - History movie in which we watch the events of the 1st of May 1944 when German occupiers executed 200 Greek resistance fighters in Kaisariani after an ambush Greek resistance against Nazis.

Since I knew the story of the execution of those 200 people in Kaisariani I was curious to see how it will be presented and I have to admit that Pantelis Voulgaris who was the director did an incredible good job. He succeeded on both presenting the history correctly, and also showed us the backstory of it and the everyday life of Greeks during the occupation by the Nazis. The interpretations of Andreas Konstantinou who played as Napoleon Soukatzidis, André Hennicke who played as Karl Fischer and Melia Kreiling who played as Hara Lioudaki mad the difference. All in all, I have to say that "The Last Note" is a nice movie that presents a horrible event as true as possible.

Based on true facts, The Last Note is a moving account of the execution of two hundred Crete prisoners during World War II at the hands of German occupiers. Much of the movie is devoted to the sometimes strained relationship between the concentration camp Commandant and his Crete translator/interpreter. The movie examines that relationship both from the perspective of the Commandant and from the perspective of the interpreter. Divided loyalties exist on both sides of that relationship; in the end those conflicts are resolved the only way that it could be - through passive and active opposition, not reconciliation. The deliberate pace of the movie is essential to the impact of the movie. The courage and fortitude of the patriots, and how that courage is portrayed in this movie, will stay with you days after having seen this movie.

Pantelis Voulgaris is a Greek director renowned for the aesthetic quality of his movies as well as his preoccupation with modern Greek history. It did not come to me as a surprise therefore, that I enjoyed the film so much. The historic facts were there, the story was good, the actors were well cast and played beautifully, photography was good as with all his films, but I really was pleasantly surprised by the details of the filming itself. This film stroke me as one that paid real attention to detail, very much unlike other Greek films. The sound was really good (an issue with older modern Greek movies) and all effects used were really well thought out and balanced.

The story itself is moving, (maybe less so if you are not Greek). Communists imprisoned by the fascist friendly Metaxas regime, are not released when the war breaks to fight at the front, and instead, the German occupation finds them behind bars. The killing of a Nazi general by the resistance, causes a huge retaliation of the Nazis against the Greeks.

When I saw the trailer for this film I was amazed by the high production value and the serious tone the film had ,with out been overly dramatic nor it had ludicrous scenes.

To the film itself ,it focuses on the execution of the inmates in in Kaisariani, as reprisal for the Greek Resistance ambush against Nazis. In the film we see how violent and predatory were the occupation forces as well as the willingness of all of the population either to fight back or support those who fight back. And when it comes to the execution it is portrait in a very mature and emotional manner.

As for historical accuracy, top notch truly the director and his team put a lot of effort in order to be faithful to the events and shows what the people of my country, Greece were willing to do for resisting to the foreign occupiers. As for the main point of view character Napoleon Soukatzidis, I love that he is neither a bad-ass nor a leading figure, he is just a significant yet small part of that story and I appreciated that interpretation.

Over all this film is the best that the Greek cinema has made in ages and I hope that this just the first of many to come.

I really liked the first part of this film. It informed me about the occupation of Greece during WWII, something I knew little about prior to this. I especially enjoyed the way the German captors were portrayed. Some scenes were a little unnerving and I only assume they were based on historical sources. The reason I didn't give this film a higher rating? The last part of it was too melodramatic and drawn out for too long. It was just too obvious what was going to happen by that point. Other than shortening I'm not sure how else the ending could be improved & can't give a better score as it is.