The literal title of this film by Nikos Koutelidakis, loaded as it is with layers of irony and secondary meaning, serves as an early inkling of what will become overtly apparent right from its opening shots. The camera contemplates the abandoned mansions in the town of Galaxidi, focusing first on the damage done by wear and tear to their exteriors, and then on their vacant interior spaces that once were filled with a human hustle and bustle. The storied past of this place, including details that evoke its former commercial shipping glory, becomes mired inside Galaxidi’s listing around that time as a protected traditional settlement, one that tries to shake off the quaint, nostalgic air imposed upon it by a pivotal decade at its dawn, only to become trapped once more within the guise of the vintage tourist attraction it remains to this day. Without warning, and much as the past intrudes on the present (or much as the imaginary is delineated by the real), Koutelidakis dedicates a ceremony to Galaxidi, a rite of valediction or perhaps of welcome – it makes no difference which. It is the revival of a carnival custom that sweeps you off into a convulsive death ritual before you even get the chance to acclimatize yourself to its beat, setting the tenor of a Dionysian requiem that does not get to complete its melancholy cycle before it folds within it “a documentary” that might well pertain to every place in Greece that watched on as time effaced its defining characteristics, the way rain washes off the paint that adorns the human order, as if in an attempt to reveal its true nature.
Nikos Koutelidakis
Nikos Koutelidakis (1942) is a director. He was born in Athens and began his career in cinema in the 1960s, initially as an assistant director to Dimis Dadiras, Vasilis Georgiadis, Grigoris Grigoriou, and Errikos Thalassinos, among others. He was also assistant director on Theodoros Angelopoulos’s film Days of ’36 (1972). He made his directorial debut in 1973 with his short film The Last Rehearsal (based on his own screenplay) and received the award for best debut director at the Thessaloniki Greek Film Festival. The film was also shown at the Oberhausen and Rio de Janeiro festivals. In 1980, he directed the documentary film A Documentary, which was awarded at the Drama Short Film Festival. His television career began in 1973 with the series Restless Youth on EIRT, written by Karolos Brousalis. Since then, he has directed telefilms and dramatic and comic fiction series, including television adaptations of books such as the novels Mrs Doremi by Lilika Nakou, The Last Grandchildren by Tasos Athanasiadis, Wedding List by Dionysis Charitopoulos, and Unlawful Love by Konstantinos Theotokis. In 1995, he directed for the first time in theatre the play Coloured Women by Vasilis Ziogas, a production that won the Best Director Award from the Society of Greek Theatrical Writers. The following year, he again directed the play Big Bang by the same author. In 2011, he directed the feature film The Christmas Tango, based on the novel of the same title by Yiannis Xanthoulis, which won three awards from the Hellenic Film Academy (for Music, Set Design, and Costume Design).