The Greek director’s full-length debut Meat touches upon issues nurtured in most insular societies, emanating from primordial instincts.
Dimitris Nakos
Cinema of moral dilemmas
Text: Tassos Retzios
Dimitris Nakos, a Phd holder on Cinema and Philosophy at Panteion University, lives and breathes just for cinema. Working as a film director, a screenwriter and a producer, he has gained recognition over the past years through his short films, among which one can single out the following: Fotini and Alexandra, The Son, Alice in the Café, Freezer, 11:20 Am. Meat, which marks his full-length debut, was screened last autumn at the Toronto International Film Festival and the recent 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, winning the award of the Greek Association of Film Critics in the latter “for its composed directorial and scriptwriting approach in dealing with the topic of contemporary Greek boondocks”. The film will hit Greek movie theaters in March, while its international release is also under way.
“Meat is a film revolving around the cover-up of a murder committed in a small Greek provincial town, which brings to surface all the ill-minded mentalities the film’s heroes had been accustomed to ignore and abide by. The revelation of the murder, though, serves as a ticking bomb that forces them to deal with the consequences of their actions and take a good hard look at the mirror,” mentions Dimitris Nakos. The film owes a great deal of its allure to its cast, featuring Akilas Karazisis, Kostas Nikouli, Pavlos Iordanopoulos, Maria Kallimani, Giorgos Symeonidis and Natalia Swift, who make up an ensemble that oozes a touch of realism, delivering fractures performances that depict in a full-rounded manner the full scale of the story. Akilas Karazisis stands out as the family’s patriarchal figure (owner of a stoch-breeding unit, who decides to expand and open a butcher’s shop), portraying through his facial winces and expressions all the dead-ends and dilemmas of today’s Greek society.
In Meat we come across two familiar (and negatively charged) points of reference for contemporary Greek cinema: the boondocks and the suffocating family structure. Dimitris Nakos lays out his approach on these two topics: “Family takes center stage in Greek fiction ever since the ancient tragedies. After all, at least from a psychoanalytical standpoint, all problems can be traced there; it’s the root of everything in a way. It goes without saying that the issues raised in Meat can be found in the big cities as well, and not just in small provincial towns. The only differentiator is that within the context of an insular society they become more noticeable, as if placed under a magnifying glass that allows us to see more clearly.”
Both as a viewer and as a filmmaker I have a soft spot for realism in cinema. Moral dilemmas, questions of power, the notions of accountability and injustice. With regard to my filmmaking techniques, I opt for the hand-held camera so as to build an affinity with the characters and convey the tension they experience to the audience. I want us to breathe together as one, following them in every step of their way.
As for the connective thread that runs through Nakou’s filmography, both in terms of film plot and style motifs, it’s no other than the “social and human-centered issues. Both as a viewer and as a filmmaker I have a soft spot for realism in cinema. Moral dilemmas, questions of power, the notions of accountability and injustice. With regard to my filmmaking techniques, I opt for the hand-held camera so as to build an affinity with the characters and convey the tension they experience to the audience. I want us to breathe together as one, following them in every step of their way.”
He got involved with cinema and filmmaking as he had always relished telling stories and watching films. He has a film belief that cinema triggers a magical form of communication, bringing together people who are worlds apart, living in different societies and in different countries. As for how he wishes his film to be perceived by the audience, here’s what he has to say: “Whenever we stumble upon heroes who suffer without a fault of their own, we want to see them come out as winners in the end. Nevertheless, this hope is often far from being realistic. Therefore, what I wish for the audience to contemplate upon exiting the movie theater is that change can only occur through our own engagement. We cannot simply wait for things to change on their own or through some sort of divine intervention. We live within society and not just alongside society. The ‘Other’ concerns us by definition as we coexist with other people within society.”
As for his influences and the film auteurs who have shaped his identity as a film director he goes on to cite legendary icons Ingmar Bergmann, Vittorio de Sica and Federico Fellini, Romanian New Wave spearheads Cristian Mungiu and Călin Peter Netzer, Iranian master Ashgar Farhadi, the Dardenne brothers, as well as indie American cinema. “I have also drawn inspiration from writers such as Dostoyefski, Kuntera and Camus, as well as from painters such as Caravaggio and Francis Bacon. All these artists were on a quest for some kind of truth, which – regardless of the form it eventually took – made their works unique.”
It’s common knowledge, though, that working as a filmmaker in Greece entails countless difficulties and a series of insurmountable obstacles. “I’m not reinventing the wheel when I say that filmmaking in Greece is no walk in the park. Nowadays wheels are put into motion at a slower pace, and it’s more than necessary for the whole structure to change and to get things rolling more quickly so that projects don’t stagnate and initial sparks don’t fade out,” he concludes.
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