‘Liubi’ to screen at Montreal festival
Though the movie has not been screened in Greece yet, Lagia Giourgou’s new feature film, «Liubi,» has already started taking off abroad. «Liubi» has been chosen for presentation in the Focus on World Cinema section of this year’s Montreal World Film Festival. The Canadian festival runs from August 26 to September. Liubi The film’s lead character, Liubi (Russian for «love») is a pretty young woman living in Athens and employed to take care of an old woman in a typical middle-class household. That’s where she meets Dimitris, a man who has become a pillar for his disabled mother and his sister, who appears to be verging on hysteria. Liubi and Dimitris fall in love. Together, they experience a feeling of false freedom, which does not last for long. According to the director, the inspiration for the plot came from a true story from a reality show. «A Greek family hired a foreigner to take care of the grandmother. Her grandson got involved (secretly) with the young woman,» Giourgou said. «Their relationship lasted for about three years.» The end of love But she adds, «Habit adulterates what is desirable and corrupts the ardor of passion.» In essence, that’s the tension of the film’s story line. «She is beautiful. All she wants is all that she can take from what is being offered to her by life itself,» Giourgou says. «He, on the other hand, is trapped in the role he is called to play. He keeps on lying to himself… The truth lies elsewhere: He cannot defend his love for a foreign woman, for someone employed as domestic help. He is a prisoner of his family situation, which emasculates him and renders him double-faced and too immature to decide, to follow his true feelings.» Every year, the Montreal World Film Festival brings together cinema professionals from around the world. The festival aims to encourage cultural diversity. This year’s event includes tributes, documentaries, a student festival and an international competition.
