Boston, October: New Greek Cinema Festival

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From: "HR-Net News Distribution Manager" <dist@hri.org>

Originally From: "Jim Singletary (MFA)" <Jsingletary@mfa.org>

New Greek Cinema Festival
October 9-24

Single Tickets: $6, $7*
9-film series pass: $36, $45*

Presented by The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Council of Hellenes Abroad as part of "Boston '98: Hellenic Cultural Capital of the Americas."

Balkanisateur
Fri., Oct. 9, at 8 pm
Sat., Oct. 24, at 2 pm
by Sotiris Goritsas (Valkanisater, Greece/Switzerland/Bulgaria, 1996, 97 min.).

In an attempt to "strike it rich," two friends embark upon a road-trip that takes them throughout the Balkans and Western Europe. During their journey they learn not only about different societies, but also gain a deeper knowledge of themselves as two "thirty-five year old teenagers on the road to maturity..." (Greek Film Centre)

Touch Me Not
Sat., Oct. 10 at 1:30 pm
by Dimitrios Yatzouzakis (Me Mou Aptou, 1996, 96 min.).

A film more provocative than this "raunchy, robust and politically incorrect comedy" has perhaps never been made. It chronicles one man's devious habit on Athens' public transit system and "the transformation he undergoes as he sees the error of his ways...This is a broad Mediterranean comedy, mischievous whimsical and unpredictable. Yatzouzakis...directs with an air of detached bemusement and a wonderful penchant for surprising his viewers" (Dimitri Eipides, Toronto Film Festival Catalogue).

It's a Long Road
Sat., Oct. 10 at 3:30 pm
by Pantelis Voulgaris (Ola ine dromos, 1998, 118 min.).

It's a Long Road is composed of three separate stories about men reaching turning points in their lives. In "A Silver Coin on the Lips" an archaeologist who, after discovering the tomb of an officer in the hellenistic period, sets out to discover why his 20-year-old soldiers son killed himself. In The Last of the Lesser Whites, an game warden takes a group of young ornithologists on expedition to track a highly endangered species. In "Vietnam," a middle-aged factory owner, disconsolate after his wifes leaves him and their rural existence, goes on a wild drinking spree at a backwoods dived called Vietnam.

Ulysses' Gaze
Sun., Oct. 11 at 12:30 pm
by Theo Angelopoulos (To Vlemma tou Odyssea, 1995, 180 min.).

Harvey Keitel stars in this film by renowned Greek director Theo Angelopoulos as a man who, in search of a short film from the beginning of the century by the pioneers of Balkan cinema, travels "across the Balkans of the '90s, the Balkans of discord, fanaticism and war. It is a journey echoing the myth of Ulysses..." and is a quest both for a lost film, and "for the pristine gaze of lost innocence" (Greek Film Centre)

Vassiliki
Fri., Oct. 16 at 5:45 pm
by Vangelis Serdaris (1997, 135 min.).

Set in 1949 Greece, a time of devastating civil war, and based on a true story, Vassiliki is a "commentary on man's will to live in freedom and on his right to fall in love, to dream and to hope" (Greek Film Centre).

The Cow's Orgasm
Fri., Oct. 16 at 8:15 pm
Sat., Oct. 24 at 2 pm
by Olga Malea (O Orgasmos tis Ageladas, 1997, 91 min.).

In Olga Malea's first feature film, Christina and Athanasia are two high school friends in rural Greece who are caught between their own personal dreams and desires and the future that their parents have planned for them. "An insightful look at contemporary Greek country life...this colorful, intriguing and down-to-earth feature benefits from the enviable talent at the helm. All in all, an auspicious debut." (Athens News).

See You (Mirupafshim)
Sat., Oct. 17 at 3:30 pm
by Christos Vouporas and Giorgos Korras (1997, 125 min.).

The inner journey of a 35-year old through his encounter with the way of life and culture of another people, as well as the maturity he attains through the ensuing conflicts. "The chance meeting of a thirty-five year-old Greek with a group of Albanian illegal immigrants will awaken him, enrich him spiritually and in a way reshape his personality ideologically. Christos, the film's hero, is an ideological remnant of the fall of extant socialism, a professor of history who once roamed the world of the broader Left and lived as a matter of personal choice beyond the pale of society, keeping company with other misfits, preferably with people who felt less Greek and whom the official state persists in ignoring" (Greek Film Centre).

Cavafy
Thurs., Oct. 22 at 8:15 pm
by Iannis Smaragdis (1996, 85 min.).

Cavafy is the chronicle of the life of C.P. Cavafy, "one of modern Greece's greatest poets, whose intensely homoerotic imagery heavily influenced author Lawrence Durell's 'The Alexandria Quartet' and the work of painter David Hockney... Smaragdis, a master biographer of literary figures, captures the ardour of Cavafy's life with a deeply lyrical style... Even in death, the poet's work evokes rich imagery that will stay with the viewer long after the story is done" (Dimitri Eipides, Toronto Film Festival Catalogue)

Truants
Fri., Oct. 23 at 6 pm
by Nikos Grammatikos (I Apontes, 1997, 115 min.).

This film focuses entirely upon the reunions of a group of six friends during seven crucial years of their social assimilation and the strains that Greek society places upon each of them as they make their own personal decisions. Nikos Grammatikos has successfully created a film in which the attention is on the reunions of six friends without any other subplots or distractionsa rare and intriguing cinematic accomplishment.

*First price is for members, students, and seniors; the second is general admission.

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