Dead Europe, distributed through Transmission Films, is in cinemas
November 15. It is also screening on Closing Night at the Greek Film Festival on Sunday Nov. 4 at 7.00pm, and as part of the Jewish Film Festival (Sydney: Tuesday 6 Nov at 8.45pm, Event Cinemas Bondi Junction).
Dead Europe, adapted by Louise Fox from the novel of
the same name by Christos Tsiolkas, tells the disturbing tale of a
young Greek-Australian photographer, Isaac (Ewen Leslie,
Jewboy and
Sleeping Beauty),
who, while attending an exhibition of his works, transports his
recently deceased father’s ashes from Australia to his ancestral
homeland in Greece. Visiting Europe for the first time, Isaac finds it
not only a rich environment for future work, but comes to learn about
his father’s sinister past involving a young Jewish boy at the end of
World War II. Isaac’s world begins to unravel as he journeys from Athens
to Paris to Budapest and realizes he cannot escape the ghosts of the
past. There is an intense clash of inherent guilt, embedded prejudice,
sordid behaviour and personal discovery.
Dead Europe is an odd film, and having not read
Tsiolkas’ novel I found the narrative difficult to penetrate. The story
is episodic, the developments are jarring and often lack context, and
rather than simultaneously focus on the two stories – Isaac’s and his
father’s – it reveals the latter almost exclusively through testimony.
The information Isaac collects about his late father and his family’s
past doesn’t feel earned, but falls into his lap often through
inexplicable convenience and following some questionable decisions. I
feel like the audience is asked to fill in the gaps themselves. Isaac
comes to realize that the ghosts of his father’s past – embedded within
the architecture of Europe, and the still-prevalent social issues – are
making their presence felt.
Continue reading at
Graffiti with Punctuation
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