Feeling like an experienced movie viewer ? Are you able to understand even the more twisted plots and the director`s ideas ? If you can answer yes on those questions that you might be able to help me out in understanding the Greek film “Akrovates tou kipou” known also as “The Cistern”.
Most of the scenes feature a bunch of eleven years old who ride their bikes , hang out and dive into a concrete cistern. My mom who watched the film with me said that showing boys riding bikes is pretty cliched for Greek movies – which is guess was her opinion because the last movie we saw together was Uranya.
The story is based on the autobiographical novel written by the film`s director. While in writings it might have been understandable – I must say that the film was quite dis-joined . A friend of mine called its ” puzzle like ” and compared it with ” Babel ” . However he like me and my mom remained disappointed as we all missed the point which the movie`s director Christos Dimas tried to make. At the beginning it felt like I was watching several films in one – color scenes were mixed with black and white ones, series of flashback are used to switch the scene to the past and present – the cinematography is quite average as the camera often moved or zoomed too fast . The friend of mine who was with me and my mom watching the film commented that he found it strange that by the middle of the film – he still could not sort out who is who and remember the names in the film. I myself was quite confused by this flick. If there is a coming of age value in The Cistern I failed to recognize it. I don`t think that film is appealing to the international audience – as MissPiggyGR from United Kingdom mentioned in her comment about it in its IMDB page – to me the refference to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and military rule in Greece was rather unclear and vague.
The Cistern is a challenging movie to watch and understand. I did not like it – but would probably watch it again some day and may be then I will be able to grasp its meaning. If you have seen it – let me know your opinion on it. If not – I would say that unless you are familiar with the Greek culture you would be better of watching another film.
Derek Elley wrote a big review of The Cistern for Variety and I think that he does a good job in interpreting the scenes in the film. Check out his review. In addition the CVMC web site who provided this film for review has an interesting discription of the film`s plot – which you can find on the link below :
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This review would have not be possible without the valuable support of CVMC : The oldest movie rental service on the Internet — since 1998. Specializing in hard to find & rare films from around the world. I would like to thank them for supporting theSkyKid.com by providing rare films for your enjoyment. Check out the film`s page site at the CVMC.net
This was a very good review of the film, and I would definitely say yes to the initial questions. I like challenges and films where you must think twice. Despite what I said in my last review on my own blog, it´s sometimes more thrilling if you don´t get the story too well prepared like you get with most mainstream films. On the other hand it can be really frustrating if you feel that the director or storywriter haven´t thought it through enough and just tried some kind of weird ending to a story or just put in some twist just because they felt it would be more interesting, but with no actual respect to the story or film itself. How the case is in this film I don´t know. Since I liked the review and because of the challenge I will of course get this film as soon as possible!
I am glad that you liked the review. However I would warn you that I , the friend who saw the film with me and my mom – we all did not like the film and I can`t say I learned anything from it. Of course – if you give it a try – you might be able to get the idea …good luck !