MIKRO EGLIMA (SMALL CRIME)

Greece, 2008, 85 minutes, Colour.
Aris Servetalis, Vicky Papadopolou.
Directed by Christos Georgiou.

Small Crime is a very slight Greek comedy. It is set in an island village, focuses on the rookie policeman who is, as someone describes him, something of a dimwit. When an old football champion dies, falling over a cliff, everybody in the village has their theory (which is visualised). The man’s daughter is an award-winning hostess of a morning television show and she returns for the funeral. Inexplicably, she is attracted to the policeman and begins a relationship with him.

The film has attractive settings, has moments of amusement – but, on the whole, is rather silly.

1.A Greek comedy-drama? The title, the death of the old man? Speculation? What actually happened?

2.The island setting and its beauty, the water, the mountains? The village?

3.Leonidas, not wanting to be there, the chief confining him to the island, his pursuing the young man in the truck, not giving him a ticket? Supervising everyone, the nudists? The fall from the cliff, his investigation? His suspicions? The investigations, discussing with all the people in the town? Meeting Angeliki, the attraction? Their being together, the investigation? Her mother? The young man and his taunting him? His being accident-prone? Being confined by the chief? Getting out, wanting to see the television – and discovering what actually happened?

4.Angeliki, the hostess, on the show, like every other show – and the awards and her winning? Return to the island, clashes with her mother, acknowledging the dead man as her father? The relationship with Leonidas? Credible or not? Jealousy of the other hostess, going back to Athens, regaining her show? Return to the island?

5.The old man, the background of his football career? His relationship with Angeliki’s mother, going to Australia, returning? His being visualised in the possibilities of how he died? His body at the foot of the cliff, carried up, in the freezer? The burial?

6.Angeliki’s mother, her bitterness, finally telling the truth? The proprietor of the rooms, her son and his marriage to the girl? The marriage ceremony?

7.The gossip in the village, the variety of characters?

8.The reality of what happened to the old man, wanting to see his daughter on the television, his falling? Leonidas discovering the truth?

9.The slight comedy, life in a Greek village?