In a conference room at the 7th floor of a building in the center of a noisy, winter Athens,
Yannis Economides and his main actors and producers gathered to talk about
Stratos, their latest film,
Economides fourth and one of this year’s
64th Berlin International Film Festival first selections for the official program.
A Greek director that through his previous works showed us a hard and painful side of modern Greece’s small-class people with their dark and, sometimes, tragicomical lives,
Economides looks eager to tell and to answer.
“Comedies” is the word he himself uses to describe his films, “comedies in the way Balzac puts it, the co-existing tragic and comical of the human condition”.
“Gloomy” is the world of his films
Maria Kallimani said, while talking about her second appearance in a
Economides film after starring at his previous one, the
Knifer. “Gloomy and totally Dionysian” she added.
Stratos, a Greek-German-Cypriot co-production, is also the name of the film’s protagonist, the great
Vangelis Mourikis, another old collaborator and dear friend of
Economides.
A small fish (the film’s original title) trying to make its way in the threating microcosmos of his neighborhood as a paid assassin who did big time in prison in his youth after killing two guys for the sake of a woman.
From the film Stratos
Threating but colorful “with less harsh language, a clearer plot, we have music and, of course, the cinemascope” as the director states.
From the film Stratos
This six fingers man (one of the film’s initial titles) lives by himself with his neighbors, a brother and sister couple, as his only companion.
Economides risked by giving the brother part -the film’s second most important- at an old friend of him with no clue about acting,
Petros Zervos. He does the same choosing soprano
Sonia Theodoridou for another role.
On the other hand,
Economides doesn’t surprise us by picking
Yannis Anastasakis, another old collaborator and part of the team of “constant values” as he likes to refer to his actors. Completing the cast,
Yannis Tsortekis,
Viki Papadopoulou and
Yannis Voulgarakis describe to us how
Economides, again in this film as did in the past, pushed them into reaching their personal limits. No complains, nobody ever thought quitting. These constant values can form the best ground for a creative atmosphere to be developed and “helped the film reach the high standards it did”
Economides said thanking his producers and crew.
Even the film’s end came as a result of this creative spirit they were under.
Michael Webber from
Match Factory Productions made a suggestion, they thought and talked about it and decided to go with it.
In the end, after everybody finished talking, as microphones went off and the spirit of red wine and rolled tobacco were spread into the conference room, a mysterious feeling of hope filled the hearts as people wished to each other and the film a good trip to Berlin.
Vaggelis Mourikis with Yannis Economides
Sonia Theodoridou
Petros Zervos
Maria Kallimani