Cine Gear: 07/11/2009

Σάββατο 7 Νοεμβρίου 2009

Interview and Preview of BLACK FIELD

Back in 1453, the rising Ottoman empire overtook the Byzantines and, as they had done on numerous other nations they' d invaded, they set a military occupation over what later came to be the Greek nation. The occupation lasted for almost four centuries, until the Turks were overthrown by the Greek revolution that broke out in 1821.

One of the reasons the Turks stayed in charge for so long, was a drafting method they implemented to renew their military forces, while reducing the youth population of the various occupied nations. It was known as devshirme, or children-gathering, and the main idea was to take away male children at a very young age and raise them as Turkish soldiers, undergoing a very rough and strict military training, part of which was the conversion to Islam and the programming of hatred towards their mother-nations. The soldiers came to be known as janizaries (from the Greek word yenos, or jenos, which translates to descent).

As a result, parents of sons, would seek out various methods to spare their children, and the most common practice would be to send them, at the youngest age possible, to one of the numerous female Christian convents of the time, and have the nuns raise them as girls, never allowing the boys to know of their anatomical difference to the other nuns.

That’s the historical axis around which Vardis Marinakis spins his drama about a young janizary warrior, who manages to escape his Turkish masters and reach the motherland to find himself wounded and in the care of a group of nuns at a Greek female convent. Obviously, he falls in love with one of the nuns, and after they elope to avoid him being found by the Turks, he discovers the nun is actually a boy.

His drama about two people of such similar and yet so disparate fates, is a composed study in the ideas of sexual and national identity, how one’s idea of identity is formed, and how one’s mind and soul might be plagued by chains due to lack of freedom to form his own version of identity.

Coupled by the jaw-dropping cinematography by Marcus Waterloo and underlined by Marinakis’ expertly choreographed direction, his remarkable elegance and impeccable sense of timing, Black Field is a haunting vision of one of Greece’s darkest moments of history, encapsulated in a beautiful, yet despairing claustrophobic environment, that is uplifted by masterfully economic performances by new-comers Hristos Passalis (also star of Greek sensation, Dogtooth) and Sofia Georgovassili, as well as veteran thespian Despina Babadelli.

21:00	Ο Χάρι Πότερ και ο αιχμάλωτος του Αζκαμπάν	Star	Ξένη ταινία
21:00	Πυροβολημένο ψάρι	Σινε+	Αισθηματική
22:30	Ένοχος κατά λάθος	Πρίσμα+	Ξένη ταινία
22:40	Αλεξάντερ Νιέφσκι	Κανάλι της Βουλής	Πολεμικό
22:40	Ημερολόγια Μοτοσυκλέτας	Σινε+	Βιογραφία
23:00	Μια λατερνα μια ζωή	ΕΤ3	Ελληνική ταινία
23:45	Austin Powers: Το χρυσό εργαλείο	Star	Ξένη ταινία
00:00	Απιστίες	Πρίσμα+	Δράμα
00:30	Μαλένα	ΕΤ3	Δράμα
01:15	Οι γυναίκες του Γουίνδσορ	ANT1	Δράμα
01:30	Helter skelter	Star	Θρίλερ
01:40	Οι γυναίκες του Γουίνδσορ	ANT1	Δράμα
02:00	Το μυστηριώδες κουτί	Alter	Μυστηρίου
04:15	Ένα απλό Φιλι	Star	Αισθηματική κομεντί
04:30	Οι ήρωες	Σινε+	Ξένη ταινία