Dodo ★★ ½
DRAMENDY (2022)
Directed by: Panos H. Koutras
Interpretations: Smaragda Karidis, Akis Sakellariou, Nikos Helia

The script is often clever, and the lines are often admirably balanced between serious and funny.

The creator of Strella and Xenia is back with what is arguably his most ambitious film ever, which fuses surreal fantasy with contemporary Greek reality. It would seem that a wealthy family marries their only daughter to avoid financial ruin. As preparations at her luxurious estate reach their climax, a strange bird that disappeared from the planet thousands of years ago appears there, setting off a series of unexpected events. Now family, organizers, guests – and some uninvited ones – will begin a cycle of revelations that will bring them face to face with both the past and the immediate challenges of the present.

Koutras deftly implements Buñuel’s version of the “Angel of Extermination” fable by bringing together a number of disparate characters in the same (relatively) enclosed space, only to bring them into conflict. A bankrupt father (Akis Sacellariou) who seeks a lifeline in a deal with his mysterious partner; a kind-hearted mother (Smaragda Karidis), a former TV personality who brings two refugees home to protect them; somewhat reluctant sister-in-law – Lowe (Natasha Exintaveloni), a desperate wedding planner trying to make sense of the paranoia, and many more gather here and take up position in the… trenches.

The Greek director’s ambition lies partly in this large concentration of characters, but mostly in the multitude of themes that his film explores. The head of a Greek family, the economic crisis and the decline of the middle class dream, first and second generation immigrants, environmental consciousness, etc. are all able to support the project on their own – rather, their accumulation leaves almost none of them for deep study and “breathing”. Then comes a long duration, more than two hours, which, however, is not accompanied by the necessary rhythm.

Of course there are merits. Cutre’s script is insightful in many cases, both in the observations and in the lines themselves, which are often admirably balanced between the serious and the funny. And the exotic bird from the title, created with excellent special effects, adds an element of desired surrealism-allegory. Finally, the interpretations are mostly positive, primarily by Smaragda Karidis, but also by the simply inimitable Angelos Papadimitriou.