Archive of films Impressions of a Drowned Man / Oi entyposeis enos pnigmenou
Cyprus / Greece / Slovenia
2015, 82 min
Section:
Another View
Year: 2015
A meditative drama about an artist, his life and death, as well as his search for memories that rise up from the flat landscape like the distant walls of city towers. Kyros Papavassiliou competed at Rotterdam with his feature debut.
Synopsis
A man on the seashore. He doesn’t know where he is; he doesn’t know who he is. He arrives in a modern city carrying a notebook full of poems and tries to discover his past and his identity, by now long forgotten. After a nighttime encounter he learns that he is famed Greek poet Kostas Karyotakis, who killed himself in 1928. “The concept of the film is summed up by an incident that happened to me,” explains director Kyros Papavassiliou. “I visited Marisha’s house (the actress in the film) and there was a mirror on the wall with a carved frame. After a while I passed in front of the mirror but was surprised that I couldn’t see myself. What was actually happening was that there was no mirror inside the frame, but just a glass surface, like window glass. The mirror was quite faint, and it felt like my self had disappeared.” The picture benefits from a relaxed yet focused tempo and a spare narrative partaking of both comedy and drama. Debut director Papavassiliou demonstrates a flair for visual composition, the images excelling for their almost graphic purity. The film competed for a Hivos Tiger Award for first or second films at the Rotterdam IFF.
Šimon Šafránek
About the director
Kyros Papavassiliou (b. 1972, Nicosia, Cyprus) studied philosophy and musicology in the United States, never attending film school. He’s written and directed three short movies. The latest, In the Name of the Sparrow (Gia to onoma tou spourgitiou, 2007), was screened in competition at Cannes. Impressions of a Drowned Man (Oi entyposeis enos pnigmenou), the director’s feature debut, competed at Rotterdam. Papavassiliou works directing commercials and editing features and television programs. In 2002 he published a collection of poetry entitled Poniman and he has written for literary magazines as well.
Contacts
Pascale Ramonda
91 rue de Ménilmontant, 75020, Paris
France
E-mail: [email protected]
About the film
Color, DCP
Section: | Another View |
---|---|
Director: | Kyros Papavassiliou |
Screenplay: | Kyros Papavassiliou ve spoupráci s / in collaboration with Yorgos Zois, Maria Varnakkidou, Philippos Yiannikouris |
Dir. of Photography: | Konstantinos Othonos |
Music: | Nikos Veliotis |
Editor: | Yiannis Chalkiadakis |
Art Director: | Andy Bargilly |
Producer: | Kyros Papavassiliou |
Production: | dryTree Films |
Coproduction: | Filmbaldes, Yiannis Chalkiadakis, Restart Production |
Cast: | Thodoris Pentidis, Marisha Triantafyllidou, Christodoulos Martas |
Sales: | Pascale Ramonda |
Guests
Kyros Papavassiliou
Maria Varnakkidou
Screenwriter
George Pantzis
Producer
Monica Nicolaidou
Producer