CORRECTION

Greece, 2008, 83 minutes, Colour.
Giorgos Symeonidis.
Directed by Thanos Anastopoulos.

A minimalist film in style that begins deceptively. The audience thinks it knows what is going to happen. A man is released from prison, makes his way through the detail of busy city streets to a refuge and then follows a woman and her daughter. We assume a relationship.

However, when the man asks the little girl what grade she is in at school, it is not quite so clear. In the background are TV reports of hooliganism at football matches and comments on the presence of Albanians, their rising birthrate and taking jobs in Greece. The ex-prisoner, it emerges, has been a member of a gang and taken the rap for other members when an Albanian fan was murdered in the streets after a match. We realise that the woman is his widow – which explains her anger whenever she encounters him and her desire to kill him in vengeance even though he expresses his regret.

When he is bashed by the gang who leave a mobile phone with the pictures of his killing the Albanian, the woman takes him in and cares for him, a wholly unexpected picture of unconditional forgiveness.

1.Universal impact? Redemption? For Greek audiences, Albanian audiences?

2.The Greek city, street life, detail, the camera immersed in the ordinariness of the life? The refuges, the restaurants, gymnasium, the stadium, the tunnel? Authentic feel? Musical score?

3.The pace, slow, the introduction to Yorgos, the focus on his face, release from prison, the minimal dialogue, following him in the street, his impassive look, his being an enigma, at the refuge, the information, the room, watching the TV news about crime, leaving, going to see the former members of the gang, their giving him cash, praising him for taking the blame, following the woman and her daughter, looking in at the restaurant, at the school, his discussion with the owner of the restaurant, getting work, listening to the owner, hard work and diligent? Trying to make a life?

4.The information about Albania, the birth rate amongst Albanians compared with Greeks, the Albanians being the workforce in Greece, the sporting background, the hooliganism, the matches against Albania, against Turkey? The thugs, the deaths, the media handling of the information?

5.Yorgos as a character, in himself, thirty-three, the issue of whether he was married or not, the past with the gang, work, returning the money to the gang, helping the woman and her daughter being asked for documents in the street, the woman and her anger, his being bashed by the gang, the mobile phone and the film?

6.The woman and the child, the child friendly, work at the restaurant, the discussions, the woman’s anger?

7.The revelation of the truth, the woman as victim, her husband, the mobile phone, watching the hooligan behaviour – and seeing Yorgos with the Greek flag painted on his face, the intensity, the violence?

8.The woman helping him, after he was bashed, on the bed, her sorrow? His sadness, the desire for atonement?

9.How well dramatised themes of confession, forgiveness, atonement, redemption?