Exile (2019 film)

Exile (Greek: "Εξορία") is a 2019 Greek feature film, directed by the Greek director, writer and producer Vassilis Mazomenos.
Plot
The film refers to the next day of the Greek financial crisis, when Aris, a desperate man, attempts to leave Greece with an almost wrecked boat. After being rescued from certain drowning by some Coast Guard men, he returns as a foreigner to his own ruined country. There he experiences every kind of “sin” and extreme as an outcast of the system. He steals; he becomes a slave and kills. He tries, willingly, to survive off the beaten track. This is like the story of a modern Ulysses.
Technique
Mazomenos filmed Exile in less than 20 long shots in the 110 minutes of the film's duration.
Cast
* Stephen Kakavoulis as Aris
* Angeliki Karistinou as Angela
* Dimitris Siganos as Anton
* Katerina Tsasi Dede as Helen
Festivals
The world premiere of the film was made on 8 November 2019, at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival It was
included in the main competition programme at the 32nd Panorama of European Cinema International Film Festival and also in the main competition at the 40th Fantasporto The film in the 2020 London Greek Film Festival won the 2nd award.
Awards
Special mention in 32nd Panorama of European Cinema
Second best feature movie in the 2020th London Greek Film Festival Best director in Athens Marathon IFF
Reviews
Élie Castiel wrote in kinoculturemontreal "Vassilis Mazomemos plays hide-and-seek with the viewer, leading him into universes that often border on the grand-guignolesque, the serious, the dramatic, the incomprehensible, sometimes administering doses of camp humor that some will like to Enjoy." Ninos Mikelides wrote in enetpress " What Mazomenos seeks, and ultimately succeeds in, in this film, is to present the various ways of exploiting and humiliating the exiled Greek, as the title of the film puts it, in his own country, Greece. Exiled in a country where Greek has become a second language, with others around him (with a few exceptions) speaking English." Stratos Kersanidis wrote in kokkino "Mazomenos from the beginning reverses the situation. The man that is leaving is a Greek because life in Greece has become unbearable, everything has collapsed, moral values do not exist, the social fabric has been irreversibly broken. Something very important, that even our place can be an exile. How exile is everywhere, even within us. And in a nightmare-like environment, we look for our place, our lost identity, our own selves." Leda Galanou wrote in flix "Vasilis Mazomenos' universe is here again, in a more ambitious, transcendent film, but with all the familiar features of the director: political discourse, humanitarian agitation, sensational dramatics. Exile has to be seen from the opposite side of the mirror (of modern Greek society)".
 
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