Delphi Bank Greek Film Festival

Delphi Bank Greek Film Festival

Returning for its 24th edition, the Delphi Bank Greek Film Festival (GFF) will showcase the unique perspectives of modern Greek storytellers from all over the world.
 
A plethora of award-winning features, documentaries and shorts make up this year's program which screens 11 – 22 October 2017 at The Astor Theatre and Palace Cinema Como in Melbourne.
 
Tickets are on sale from 12pm today at greekfilmfestival.com.au.
 
The 2017 program includes a diverse offering, including Yorgos Lanthimos' (The Lobster) new Cannes-winning thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Australian-made political investigation Dogs of Democracy, musical road film Djam, Sotiris Dounoukos' chilling adaptation of Helen Garner's novel Joe Cinque's Consolation and the GFF'16 sell-out Cloudy Sunday (Ouzeri Tsitsanis) returns to close this year's Festival.
 
This full line-up joins the already announced Opening Night event-screening of Roza of Smyrna.
 
'There is so much to explore in this year's program, with films that will challenge and broaden perceptions on a myriad of issues. We're thrilled to have the opportunity to bring new films such as Yannis Sakaridis' chaotic Amerika Square and the sumptuous DJAM (from this year's Cannes Film Festival) to Australian audiences. We encourage everyone to dive in and experience the best Greek cinema has to offer", said Festival Director, Penny Kyprianou.
 
The 2017 program presents 16 feature films including:
 
Roza of Smyrna (2016), praised as the Romeo and Juliet of Greco-Turkish relations starts celebrated theatre actress Lida Protopsalti and follows an art collector unravelling a story of star-cross lovers while searching for artefacts in the lost city of Smyrna.

Cloudy Sunday (2015), a moving period drama which follows the forbidden love-story between a Jewish girl and Christian boy in Nazi-occupied Thessaloniki, who find refuge in a tavern run by seminal Greek songwriter Vassilis Tsitsanis. Stars Andreas Konstantinou (Little England, GFF 2014).
 
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell and Alicia Silverstone, and directed by Oscar-nominee Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, GFF 2016), is an unsettling psychological thriller following a surgeon who must make an unthinkable sacrifice when his relationship with a teenage boy turns sinister.
 
Djam (2017) is a musical road film from Cannes veteran Tony Gatlif (Exils, 2004), offering a big-hearted, life- affirming take on Southern Europe's migrant situation. It follows a free-spirited Greek woman and a lost French woman as they hit the road together to Mytilene.
 
Mythopathy (2016), directed by Tassos Boulmetis (A Touch of Spice, GFF 2004) and starring Giannis Niaros (One Breath, GFF 2016), this wistful comedy-drama about a rare sufferer of 'mythopathy" – which allows him to reshape reality whenever he suffers a broken heart.
 

The Bachelor (2016), the Hellenic answer to The Hangover, stars Greek comedian Yannis Zouganelis on a wild night out in Thessaloniki with hilarious consequences.
 
The Other Me (2016), winner of the Audience Award at Thessaloniki Film Festival, is a crime thriller following a professor who teams up with a maths teacher to solve five seemingly unrelated murders, linked only by cryptic Pythagoras quotes.
 
Amerika Square (2016), Greece's candidate for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2018 Academy Awards, offers timely insight into the European immigration crisis, following a racist Greek nationalist who blames the new migrants in his neighbourhood for his personal woes.
 
Son of Sofia (2016), winner of Best International Narrative Feature at Tribeca Film Festival, is a magic realist coming-of-age drama about a child escaping his uneasy home life. When he transforms into the 1980s Olympic mascot, he befriends a Ukrainian teenage gigolo, and the real world closes in on him.
 
Afterlov (2016), is a -Woody Allen' style comedy-drama, which follows a broke musician who locks his ex- girlfriend in the basement of a luxury villa in order to dissect the reasons their relationship fell apart.
 
Boy on the Bridge (2016), based on Eve Makis' novel The Land of the Golden Apple, is a gripping drama about a young boy who discovers a dark family secret in the midst of a murder investigation.
 
Lines (2016), is a modern day Greek tragedy offering a commentary on life in modern-day Greece through seven stories about seven individuals crushed by the economic crisis.
 
Pedro Noula (2016) is cult filmmaker Karolos Zonaras's third neo-noir (Big Hit, GFF 2013), about a young man piecing together his identity after a traffic accident erases his memory, with no clues except a passport, broken cell phone, bank check and a photograph of a woman.
 
The Story of the Green Line (2016) is the latest film by political activist filmmaker Panicos Chrissanthou, and a provocative war drama that follows two Cypriots from warring sides who embark on dangerous secret journeys behind enemy lines.
 
Chevalier (2015), directed by Greek Weird Wave filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg, GFF'11), offers a wry, feminist portrait of men, in a film that follows the unpicking of male pack behaviour as six men sail a private yacht on the Aegean.
 
Joe Cinque's Consolation (2016), directed by Melbourne-based Sotiris Dounoukos, explores the chilling demise of the relationship between affable engineering student Joe (Jerome Meyer) and mentally troubled Anu (Maggie Naouri). Adapted from Helen Garner's novel of the same name, and based on a true story.
 
Feature documentary offerings include:
 
Dogs of Democracy (2016), from Australian director Mary Zournazi and produced by seminal documentarian Tom Zubrycki, this doc follows the lives of stray dogs in Athens, and the people who take care of them. A dog-lover's take on the famous Turkish cat doco Kedi.  
90 Years PAOK: Nostalgia for the Future (2016), chronicles the 90-year history of the iconic Greek football club, featuring interviews with players, coaches and members including Greek football legend Giorgos Koudas.
 
Istoria (2016) Winner of Best International Narrative Feature at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, this Australian-directed doc by David Ockenden follows three generations, headed by Elias, his son and grandson as they embark on an emotional odyssey back to Greece for the first time following Elias' move to Australia after the Civil War.
 
The 8th Greek-Australian Short Film Festival:
 
Fifteen international and Australian shorts will accompany the feature program. Australian highlights include: Annex, adapted from a story by revered Greek-Australian author Chris Tsolkias, and Please Resist Me directed by Melbourne slam poet Luka Lesson. International highlights include: Gymnast, starring Greek Olympic gymnast Vasiliki Millousi, and Cube, winner of Best Screenplay at the Athens International Film Festival, about a slacker who can solve Rubik's Cubes at lightning speed, but struggles to solve his family's problems.
 
The Delphi Bank 24th Greek Film Festival
Wednesday 11 October – Sunday 22 October 2017
The Astor Theatre, Palace Cinema Como
greekfilmfestival.com.au

The Delphi Bank 24th Greek Film Festival runs 11-22 October 2017 at Palace Cinema Como and The Astor Theatre, and also travels to Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane.