Although located at the Southern extremity of the European Union, or maybe just because of this, Greece found itself in the last few years at the crossroads of Europe. The economic crisis that hit Europe and the whole world a decade ago was specifically tough on the Greek economy, part due to global factors, part to the accumulation of bad administration and wrong decision in economic policies. For the Greek economy to survive harsh austerity programs were imposed by the EU and the IMF, resulting in salary and pension cuts and especially in loss of jobs for a significant percentage of the work force. On the other side, Greece found itself, together with Italy, being a target destination and entry point in Europe for hundreds of thousands of refugees from war and economic catastrophes in Africa and the Islamic world. The social and economic pressure resulted in high costs for the Greeks families and individuals, in personal crises for people losing or in danger of losing their safety in a world in change. For some of them the refuge was in political extremism. For other in love. This is the background but also the major theme of actor and director Christopher Papakaliatis's film 'Enas Allos Kosmos' or 'Worlds Apart'.
The film is based on three stories, which at first seem to have in common only the relationships between three Greeks and three aliens of different origins and statuses. A young student is saved from rape by an illegal Syrian refugee and the inevitable resulting love story is also the opportunity for the girl to be exposed to the realities of the life conditions of the migrants and the life danger they encounter under the threats of fascist hooligans. A mid-age father of a boy has a one-night stand with a beautiful Swedish woman that turns into a longer relationship, just to discover that she is the manager of the restructuring program at his work place that puts his career and the careers of the people under his responsibility under threat. A housewife struggling to meet ends meets a German retiree in front of the supermarket where she cannot afford any longer buying food, starting a moving and discrete love story at the sunset of the lives of the two. None of the three stories can have a happy end in real world, and maybe this is where the film should have concluded. But it did not.
The telling of the stories is pretty fluid, in the style of the European (especially French) romantic stories with a social background. Acting is also good, all the six actors are well cast and play their roles with sincerity and emotion. It's the seventh character - the one of the aged and disappointed worker falling into extremism which deserves a special note. The name of the actor was Minas Hatzisavvas and this was his last role on screen, he died soon after the film was completed.
The three stories eventually came together, and this is were I believe, the whole structure loses originality, falling into a territory of expected and melodramatic turns of fate. While the whole Greek defiance is running high (we are several times reminded that the world may have invented economic efficiency but the Greeks invented love), this film about the crisis of the Greek individuals and the Greek family cell under pressure of crisis and having a hard time to cope with the relation with other nations in a global world, has a much too conventional American end.
The film is based on three stories, which at first seem to have in common only the relationships between three Greeks and three aliens of different origins and statuses. A young student is saved from rape by an illegal Syrian refugee and the inevitable resulting love story is also the opportunity for the girl to be exposed to the realities of the life conditions of the migrants and the life danger they encounter under the threats of fascist hooligans. A mid-age father of a boy has a one-night stand with a beautiful Swedish woman that turns into a longer relationship, just to discover that she is the manager of the restructuring program at his work place that puts his career and the careers of the people under his responsibility under threat. A housewife struggling to meet ends meets a German retiree in front of the supermarket where she cannot afford any longer buying food, starting a moving and discrete love story at the sunset of the lives of the two. None of the three stories can have a happy end in real world, and maybe this is where the film should have concluded. But it did not.
The telling of the stories is pretty fluid, in the style of the European (especially French) romantic stories with a social background. Acting is also good, all the six actors are well cast and play their roles with sincerity and emotion. It's the seventh character - the one of the aged and disappointed worker falling into extremism which deserves a special note. The name of the actor was Minas Hatzisavvas and this was his last role on screen, he died soon after the film was completed.
The three stories eventually came together, and this is were I believe, the whole structure loses originality, falling into a territory of expected and melodramatic turns of fate. While the whole Greek defiance is running high (we are several times reminded that the world may have invented economic efficiency but the Greeks invented love), this film about the crisis of the Greek individuals and the Greek family cell under pressure of crisis and having a hard time to cope with the relation with other nations in a global world, has a much too conventional American end.