Tag Archives: xenia

Road Movies and Feel Good Journeys

As you may have read, our film Xenia was released on Monday and we thought it would be a good idea to explore the Road Movie genre and dust off some great iconic films that have paved the way for upcoming features.

The Road Movie genre came about at the birth of American cinema with a reflection on American youth culture. Notable films such as EASY RIDER and THELMA & LOUSIE have become the ultimate road movie films, which can be said to have inspired other filmmakers in different countries to use this genre and juxtapose it with other important issues of the time.

The films usually consist of one or more characters leaving their mundane day-to-day lives and journeying into uncharted territories, usually for self-discovery purposes, escaping something, or setting up a new life. There is a sense of freedom in the act, enveloping the human spirit into a state of self-reflection and embracing their own identities.

Although faced with hardships and often unfamiliarity, the films poise moments of feel-good that derive from the freedom the characters experience once they have left everything behind and fear is just a dark cloud in their rearview mirror.

XENIA is a modern day Odyssey, bringing the lost Greek traditions of ‘hospitality’ back to the forefront of Greek culture. The two boys journey through a hyper-real Greece in search for their father who abandoned them 13 years ago. Interwoven with surreal sequences, entering the sub-cultural movement called Greek Weird Wave.

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We look back at some of our releases around the road movie genre and some of our favourite classics.

Yossi – Directed by Eytan Fox. A film that perhaps shows you that the longest trip might just be within yourself.

Yossi

 

Give Me Your Hand – Directed by Pascal-Alex Vincent. If you thought twins didn’t have any secrets, get comfortable on your backseat because these two 18 year old brothers on their way to their mother’s funeral in Spain, will go on a journey that will change their lives forever.

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The Adventures of Priscilla – Directed by Stephen Elliot. The film that drew attention to Australian cinema and the Aussie LGBT community. If that wasn’t a long shot for the early 90’s, then getting on the Priscilla tour bus with two drag queens and a transgender woman definitely was.

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The Golden Dream – Directed by Diego Quemada-Diez, brings a different kind of journey. This time, the road it’s about a group of Mexican teenage boys trying to make it through the U.S. border and the challenges they face.

 

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Transamerica – Directed by Duncan Tucker. Felicity Huffman is brilliant at playing a transgender woman who reconnects with her son and promises to take him to L.A. As her son discovers that she’s actually his father, she will find in him the strength to overcome her fears and finally be completely free in her own skin.

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Drôle de Félix – Directed by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau. This was Peccadillo Pictures’ first release and it is possibly the most similar film to Xenia – story wise. If you enjoyed Felix’s journey to find his father, you will definitely appreciate the journey of two brothers looking for their father as their relive old forgotten memories of their childhood.

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and you all know how we like to save the best for last…

Thelma & Louise – Directed by Ridley Scott. Do we really need to say anything? Outstanding performances from Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in a film about self-discovery and women empowerment in a highway filled with phallic symbols.

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So… if you didn’t know about this sub-genre, we do invite you to check it out. Road movies will most likely end up making your weekends better with their Feel Good vibe and the strong characters behind the steering wheel.

Xenia – An Interview With Director Panos H. Koutras

Dare To Follow The White Rabbit?

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After the death of their mother, Dany, 16, leaves Crete to join his older brother, Odysseas, who lives in Athens. Born from an Albanian mother and a Greek father they never met, the two brothers, strangers in their own country, decide to go to Thessaloniki to look for their father and force him to officially recognize them. At the same time in Thessaloniki, is held the selection for the cult show, “Greek Star.” Dany dreams that his brother Odysseas, a gifted singer, could become the new star of the contest, in a country that refuses to accept them.

Why did you name the film Xenia?

“Xenia” could be translated as “hospitality”, though the meaning of this ancient Greek concept is much more complex. The Greek gods abided by this law, which commands us to honour and welcome strangers wherever they come from. Zeus, the father of all gods, is also sometimes referred to as Xenios Zeus, “Zeus the hospitable”. Hospitality was a major founding principle in Ancient Greece. Xenophobia is a relatively modern concept. Today, not only has Greece forgotten its duties towards foreigners, but it also deceives and misleads its people.

“Xenia” is also the name of a chain of luxury hotels built in the late fifties by great architects throughout the country. People were discovering tourism, it was a time of great economic prosperity in Greece. Today, more than 90% of these luxury hotels are abandoned and condemned.

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The quest of two brothers, a family feud, a character named Odysseas… Greek mythology and tragedy haunt Xenia and hold a prominent place in your films…

I am Greek, and in Greece, they teach you about Greek mythology from primary school. There is no getting away from it. Although to me, mythology has more to do with popular culture than with some noble academic discipline for the happy few.

Your films often verge on fantasy. The way you combine present-day realism (immigration, crisis…) with fantasy is pretty unique.

Fantasy is vital to me, it is a need, not an aesthetic choice. Reality and dream often get mixed up in my daily life. I don’t see why it could not be so in films. To me, it is the best way to come closer to reality. For Xenia, it seemed only natural to resort to fantasy to build Dany’s character. Traumatized children find often refuge in the realm of imagination.

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A gay club called “Fantastiko”, a lawyer named Antigone, the Greek Star… Xenia is constantly filled with humour, parody and irony, as an answer to tragedy. Will humour save Greece?

Will humour save Greece or the world? Humour holds reflection in itself. It provides a certain distance, and distance is an incredible luxury. I don’t think cinema is going to change the world. But I am sure it opens perspectives that can help us to see and understand. I totally subscribe to André Bazin’s statement, which has become a cliché but is still so true and beautiful: “Cinema is a window opened to the world”.