Chance to sample some rare screenings as Athens film festival winds down
With many Greek cinemas offering the standard blockbuster fare, the 15th Athens International Film Festival provides something old, something new and something odd to suit all tastes and perhaps stimulate some new ones. Take time on the weekend to sample some uncommon cinema offerings before the festival ends on Sunday. Some screenings to pick from: Saturday Telstar «Telstar» will be music to the ears of early-60s pop aficionados. The biography drama focuses on its unlikely hero, breakout (and tone-deaf) music producer Joe Meek, who in a downward spiral went from being at the top of the music charts to later being hit with accusations of insanity, drug abuse and murder. (11.30 p.m., Attikon) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo This Swedish crime thriller is a blood-packed film adaptation of the first installment of Swede Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, a best-seller throughout Scandinavia that has been translated into 35 languages. (7 p.m., Danaos 1) Noriko’s Dinner Table Part of the festival’s retrospective on filmmaker and poet Shion Sono, the Japanese«Noriko’s Dinner Table» tells the story of two teenage girls who become members of an online cult. Sono tears back the veil on the painful topic of suicide and the ways in which it tears a family apart. Told via five interwoven viewpoints; it’s a bold and timely work. (11.30 p.m., Danaos 1) Sunday We Live in Public Through the ups-and-downs story of a dotcom millionaire, «We Live in Public» is a documentary worth watching. A revealing and often frightening look into how the Internet changed the playing field forever when it comes to privacy and surveillance. (5.15 p.m., Apollon) Cinema & disability Three highlights from this summer’s International Festival on Documentary and Disability will be shown free of charge: Belgian documentary «Lettres a Lou,» in which a filmmaker follows the first six years of his blind son’s life; French animation short «Mon petit frere de la lune,» in which a girl comments on her brother’s autism; and another short, «Strand,» from the Netherlands. (6 p.m., Danaos 1) Funeral of Roses It’s not everyday you see the story of Oedipus set in a 1960s gay neighborhood in Tokyo. This 1969 Japanese art-house drama takes an almost documentary-style look at the life of a Japanese transvestite, with some psychedelic film effects. (9.30 p.m., Apollon) For the full schedule and information on buying tickets, visit www.aiff.gr.
