O kipos tou Theou

After becoming one of Greece's most important cinema actors, Takis Spyridakis attempts to direct- with brilliant results.

Spyridakis depicts the suffocating way of life behind bars, dealing with issues such as friendship and human pain. Garden of God won five awards in its screening at the Thesaloniki Film Festival. However, its cruel depiction of the Greek prison system, never allowed it to rise above the underground circuit: It only played at one theater for a very limited amount of time. It never got a video or DVD release.

The visual style of the film is very dark and very dirty- whoever discovered those locations deserves an award. I am not sure how they managed to make a 90s movie look so old- forget the polished look of this era's cinema. The riot sequence is wild and realistic- awesome stuff. It is more than obvious that Spyridakis was deeply influenced by the style of Nikolaidis (he took part in two of his most important films, as an actor). The film suffers from bad sound (as many other Greek productions do) but, in a strange way, this adds something to it. Keep in mind it was a low budget film.

If the story was easier to follow, we'd be talking about a masterpiece. But the cast is special (a young Vangelis Mourikis and Spyridakis himself as prisoners) and the director's imaginative look make it irresistible.