Greek Movie Reviews

SPOILERS, ONE OF WHICH CAN BE LISTED AS MAJOR(Though most of what is written is what can be found in most reviews about the movie):"To proxenio tis Annas" is the first great film of the director Pantelis Voulgaris. Anna, a young woman comes to a Greek house in Athens to work as a servant. The family loves her and they try to find her a man in order to get married. When the man is finally found, they change their mind and this is when relations start to break up. Voulgaris depicts in a great way the way Athenians used to live, people gathering on Sundays and/or Holidays at big momma's house, playing backgammon, little ambitious girls wanting to become models, the ethical way of family, Anna has to find a man and make a good, descent, Christian family etc. Voulgaris as he had once said was inspired by an incident that has happened in his family when he was young. There is also a kind of political implication, Anna's father was executed at Kalavryta by the Germans. But most of it, the film shows how 2 families are attached to and depend on a girl, the victim in the whole case, and how difficult it is finally for her to make her life the way she wants it to be when she finally compromises with it. Anna Vagena and the rest of the cast (along with a must-seen Costas Rigopoulos) are great !

TO PROXENIO TIS ANNAS (THE ENGAGEMENT OF ANNA)
Director: Pantelis Voulgaris, Greece 1972, 82 minutes
Cast: Anna Vayena, Smaro Veaki A classic of world cinema, recently chosen as one of the ten best Greek films of the last 30 years by International Film Guide, Voulgaris' feature debut swept all of the Greek film prizes, won several awards abroad, and was hailed as "one of the most sensitive, human and impressive Greek films ever made" (Variety). Establishing the quiet but charged tone of his subsequent cinema, Voulgaris sets the film in the sunny garden of a middle-class Greek household as relatives and friends come by to celebrate the engagement of Anna the maid. As the day wears on, the family realizes that they cannot afford to lose the services of this faithful "girl from the village," and decide to stop her marriage. "***1/2" (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune). "Marvelous" (Georgia Brown, The Village Voice). 

http://www.greekfilmfestival.com.au/filmfestival05/melbourne/films/film_anna.htm

 Greek Civil War 1946-49, "Psyhi Vathia (Soul Deep)".

Produced in 2009 from one of Greece's most important film directors, Pantelis Voulgaris, the film presents the human side of these dramatic historical events, through the tale of two young brothers who find themselves enlisted in opposing camps after their father is killed and they are separated from their mother.

The film features breathtaking battle scenes on the mountain of Grammos, in northern Greece, where the last episode of the war took place. The great actor Thanassis Veggos pays his tribute to the victims in a characteristic scene, and the soundtrack has been composed by Yiannis Aggelakas.
This is the story of two brothers, Anestis and Vlasis who fight in two different
camps during the Greek civil war. The story takes place in 1949; the last year
of the war and probably the year that the most ferocious battles took place
between the guerrillas and the Greek Army. In this story the two brothers
(who are not even adults) have to face their worst fear: losing each other.
While the story evolves, the audience can see the most realistic to date,
images of this brutal war who cost the lives of 70.000 soldiers on both sides
and resulted in the immigration of over 500.000 non combatants.

http://www.officeofhellenicstudies.com/Office_of_Hellenic_Studies/Office_of_Hellenic_Studies_-_Events_files/psixi%20V%20handout.pdf