Domestic road movie set to roll
They’re an odd pair, but it’s hard to tell whether they’re actually a couple. He – played by the long-serving cult rocker-actor Dimitris Poulikakos – is a virtuoso musician on the clarinet. She is an extremely attractive lady whose background remains a mystery. Her name, «Glyka» [Sweetness] – played by Alexia Kaltsiki – is about all the information the viewer gets. Between them is a middle-aged man, played by Lefteris Voyiatzis, who is devastated by his recent breakup with the lady of his life. However, on his way to Thessaloniki, a journey made to forget it all, the troubled individual tells everyone that he is visiting his sick and elderly father. The trio meets in the country’s north, in the farming region outside Larissa, and, by chance, end up traveling together to Istanbul. These are the core ingredients of «Athens – Istanbul,» an upcoming film by the Greek director Nikos Panagiotopoulos. Filming begins in Athens today and is expected to last until at least November. The director and his three co-stars, who, in the past have all worked with Panagiotopoulos, perhaps the most prolific of Greek directors currently active, attended a pre-production promotional event last week at the Apollon Theater in Athens. A road movie, «Athens – Istanbul» is layered in shades of sadness. Melancholy and gloom were the core elements of the film, noted Michel Fais, who co-wrote the project’s script with Panagiotopoulos. Having said that, Fais quickly added: «Don’t expect an overall mood of melancholy and gloom… This film also carries Panagiotopoulos’s lighter touch, the spirit of parody that characterizes him. In Panagiotopoulos’s films, all is sprinkled with a kind of sweetness.» The production’s crew plans to film in various parts of the country, including Thebes, Katerini, Kavala and Alexandroupolis. Shooting in Istanbul will feature three Turkish actors. «Each time I begin work on a new film, it’s like going to war,» Panagiotopoulos admitted to the session’s attending journalists. «Everybody believes we’re doing something pleasant, but in actual fact it’s very tough. If all goes according to the production’s schedule, the film will be in theaters after the festive period, in January or February,» he said.
