Despite blue skies over Greece’s second city ahead of the opening ceremony, the 65th Thessaloniki Film Festival kicks off Oct. 31 under clouds of uncertainty, with the war in Ukraine raging toward its three-year anniversary and the year-old Israel-Hamas conflict spilling into neighboring countries and threatening to engulf the entire Middle East. The U.S., meanwhile, heads to the polls next week for an election that’s been framed as a referendum on the fate of American democracy itself — with the eyes of the world watching.
For Thessaloniki festival director Orestis Andreadakis, a veteran film critic who’s been at the helm of the festival since 2016, global events have only brought a renewed sense of urgency “to find movies that matter,” he tells Variety on the eve of opening night. “Movies that say something about our lives, our situation in the world, with so many changes, so many dangers — wars, climate change, the rise of the far right.”
This year’s edition of the venerable Greek fest, which runs Oct. 31 – Nov. 10, opens with the national premiere of Pablo Larraín’s Oscar contender “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie as Greek opera diva Maria Callas — described by Andreadakis as “the most important Greek artist of the 20th century” and “one of a kind.” It closes with “The End,” Joshua Oppenheimer’s post-apocalyptic musical, starring Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon, about a group of elites who hoard fine art and expensive wines in an underground bunker to wait out a cataclysm that they might have instigated themselves.
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While that film is in some way a barometer of the current mood, the festival’s tribute program, “We, the Monsters,” curated by former Berlin and Locarno artistic director Carlo Chatrian, broadens the gaze to explore how filmmakers across the decades have used monsters to express the unknown, the unfamiliar or the “other” in ways that feel frighteningly relevant in our contemporary political climate.
“The monster appears increasingly as an inverted image of ourselves,” says Andreadakis. “As populism, extreme political choices and hostility lead to monstrosities, we are horrified to find that the monster does not dwell only in the imaginary world out there, but also within us, and that with our participation, tolerance or silence we can also become monsters.”
Citing the Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis, who once observed that “when you get accustomed to the monster, you start to look alike,” Andreadakis insists that an active citizenry must be as vigilant against its own fears and biases as the threat of the perceived “other” — something in which he says cinema can play a vital role.
“In a time of ‘innocence’ — the ’60s and ’70s — we believed that cinema could change the world. It definitely cannot,” he says. “But it can change our lives, it can change the way we think, it can change the way that we react in our societies, it can change the way that we can interfere in those dramatic and tragic events around us.”
Ralph Fiennes, seen above in “The English Patient,” will receive a lifetime achievement award.
Among the highlights of this year’s festival will be a special screening of “The English Patient” in the presence of its two stars, Juliette Binoche, who won the Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance, and Ralph Fiennes, who was nominated for best actor. Both will receive honorary Golden Alexander awards during the festival and will attend a special screening of “The Return,” Umberto Pasolini’s retelling of Homer’s “Odyssey,” with the director in attendance. Also receiving a lifetime achievement award in Thessaloniki will be prolific actor Matt Dillon, who will present his new film, “Being Maria,” director Jessica Palud’s biopic of “Last Tango in Paris” star Maria Schneider in which Dillon plays Marlon Brando.
In recognition of his own contributions to Greek and world cinema, an Honorary Golden Alexander will also be given to groundbreaking director Panos Koutras, who will be honored with a retrospective of his work including the iconic films “The Attack of the Giant Moussaka,” “Strella” and “Xenia.” Elise Jalladeau, the general director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival and its sister documentary event, praised the “unconventional, pioneering and daring director” and heralded him as “one of the most important voices of Greek queer cinema.”
A total of 252 feature-length and short films will screen during the festival. The competition lineup, which features 12 films from up-and-coming directors, includes Leonardo Van Dijl’s “Julie Keeps Quiet,” Belgium’s submission for the best international feature film Oscar, and “Under the Volcano,” by Damian Kocur, which is Poland’s entry. Other titles vying for the Golden Alexander include “Happy Holidays,” a best screenplay winner in Venice’s Horizons strand for Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti; “On Falling,” which won best director at San Sebastian for Laura Carreira; and “Pierce,” a best director winner at Karlovy Vary for Nelicia Low.
Yorgos Zois’ “Arcadia” competes for the Golden Alexander.
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The host nation will present 22 feature-length and 24 short films, among them a trio competing for the top honors — Yorgos Zois’ “Arcadia,” which won best director at Sarajevo; Dimitris Nakos’ Toronto premiere “Meat”; and Yannis Veslemes’ “She Loved Blossoms More,” which bowed at Tribeca — with a total of 18 Greek films celebrating premieres.
Andreadakis, citing the Thessaloniki festival’s mission to support and promote domestic cinema, notes that this year’s participants “show the strength of our small industry” and its emergence on the global stage in the wake of the country’s crippling economic crisis.
“The last 10, 15 years, we see a new generation of filmmakers that [are present] at festivals, they distribute their films on international platforms and in theaters all around the world,” he says. “And it gives us a lot of hope.”
The Thessaloniki Film Festival runs Oct. 31 – Nov. 10.
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