Greek director’s first film on at Swiss movie festival
Director Penny Panayiotopoulou’s debut feature film will take her beyond the local scene and into the international arena. The Greek director’s first full-length effort, «Tough Goodbyes: My Dad,» a Greek-German production, is set to have its world premiere at this summer’s Locarno International Film Festival, August 1-11, as an entry in the International Competition section. The film will then be taken to Toronto’s International Film Festival in September. Participation alone, regardless of how Panayiotopoulou’s film eventually fares amid a total of 22 entries at Locarno, is quite an accomplishment, considering the rare outings of Greek productions at major festivals. The film, for which Panayiotopoulou also penned the script, examines bereavement and loss through the eyes of a young boy who refuses to come to terms with the sudden death of his father. It stars Ioanna Tsirigouli as the boy’s mother and Giorgos Karayiannis as the disillusioned youngster, as well as Stelios Mainas, Christos Stergioglou, Christos Bougiotas, and Despo Diamantidou in supporting roles. Dimitris Katsaitisis is the film’s director of photography, while Lily Kentaka designed the props and costumes. Panayiotopoulou first emerged in Greek film with a short film in 1988, «Eldorado,» which, like her debut feature, also features a young boy as its protagonist, who makes up a long journey in his imagination. The director asserts that her latest effort is neither about children nor adolescence. «My film is about people who are unable to mourn,» she says. Locarno’s 55th International Film Festival will open with the world premiere of Oliver Parker’s latest effort, «The Importance of Being Earnest,» a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play, starring Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O’Connor, Judi Dench and Reese Witherspoon. The established festival will also give independent filmmakers exposure through its Leopards of Tomorrow section, where short and mid-length movies by independent directors and film students will be placed in competition. Swiss talent will also be unveiled in the festival’s Young Swiss Talents section, where 16 shorts by film students at schools will do battle. Also on the agenda are retrospectives on youth-oriented films and established contemporary Australian directors, the latter to feature Gillian Armstrong («Little Women,» «My Brilliant Career»), Bruce Beresford («Tender Mercies,» «Driving Miss Daisy»), P.J. Hogan («My Best Friend’s Wedding»), Phillip Noyce («Sliver,» «Patriot Games,» «Dead Calm»), as well as three directors of Greek descent, Alex Proyas, Stavros Efthymiou and George Miller.
