Greek film director, Panagiotis Kountouras ponders the real world…
PANAGIOTIS KOUNTOURAS’s short film IVAN was nominated for the Short Film Audience Award at this year’s Leeds International Film Festival. LOUIS HELLEN meets the visionary director to talk about the triumphs, the struggles and the reality of the Greek film industry.
“It was mind-blowing; my heart was racing,” Greek filmmaker Panagiotis Kountouras was thinking as he attempted to gauge the reactions of the crowd during a screening of his short film IVAN at LIFF 2018.
Born in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, Kountouras was honoured to be invited as a guest of the festival, the biggest in his career so far: “I felt anxious of course, but it is great to be part of this celebration of cinema.”
IVAN follows the orderly dinner preparations of a quiet, solitary man. Technically it is as a silent film, despite its single spoken line of dialogue.
“I think (the film) says more with its Cinema vérité, making the audience focus on this world we have created, the way this man listens, moves and responds to his reality,” Kountouras explains.
The film’s message is that history moves in cycles, the final scene a kind of ‘point zero,’ where man becomes one with ‘another entity,’ both with the same basic needs. “But I don’t want to destroy your way of reading the film,” Kountouras adds.
Huge credit goes to the actor Christos Stergioglou, familiar to UK audiences from E4’s Stath Lets Flats, whose mostly solo performance in IVAN is exceptional.
The actor imbues his character with an obsessive eye for detail, methodical in everything he does. “It’s a one man show,” says Kountouras.
A key reason for the film’s success is the work of screenwriters, Taxiarchis Deligiannis and Vasilis Tsiouvaras, who have managed to craft a script with very little dialogue that really works.
Self-produced with virtually no budget, Kountouras says he did not want to wait. He had his vision and wanted to execute it as soon as possible.
“When the writers came to me with the script and asked me to be the director of the film, it was a unique moment for me. As I was reading the script I could see the film, a perfect vision of what it needed to be”.
The bleak financial situation in Greece means filmmakers there have virtually no funding from outside sources, meaning there are no expensive sets or studio facilities.
Some in the audience may be put off by the visual nuances of Greek film, but there is as much a focus on narrative as British and Hollywood productions, says Kountouras, albeit presented in a way that is perhaps more obviously metaphorical.
“There is a label attached to Greek film,” explains Kountouras. “Greek Weird Wave cinema because of the strange stories and surreal imagery.” Although Kountouras hopes the label will be ‘dead’ in a few years, he says. “The crisis has forced us to adapt to a new style of storytelling, but this style has made us fly.”
Although IVAN did not win the Short Film Audience Award, Kountouras plans to move on to feature films and use the experience to gain funding and support.
The director has his sights set on Robert Redford’s Sundance Festival, but says, “Leeds is the perfect place start.”
Louis Hellen’s Ones Still to Watch at #LIFF2018…
The Dawn Wall (Leeds Town Hall: Victoria) Monday 20:15
El Capitan, a huge block of granite whose smoothest side, the Dawn Wall, is said to be the most difficult rock climb in the world. The film follows two climbers on their historic ascent to the summit.
Pity (Hyde Park Picture House) Tuesday 20:30
Raising the stakes for the Greek weird wave to pitch black comedy, Pity is a deadpan satire about a man who becomes addicted to sadness.
Happy as Lazzaro (Vue) Wednesday 18:00
What begins as a gentle view of bucolic society takes a time-bending turn in this dreamy, Cannes prizewinning film which sees its hapless hero and pals encounter modern society with all its pitfalls.
The Old Man & The Gun (Town Hall: Victoria) Wednesday 19:30
In what is reportedly his last film role, Robert Redford brings a natural blend of easygoing charm and steely determination to this comedy drama.