Known for Acting
Irina returns to Athens after long absence to find her step-brother. Her brother's friends, an American musician, a young Russian, a heritage-suitcase of her father and a series of odd events drift her into an inner journey...
This European existential drama utilizes complex symbols inspired by abstract psychological theories to explore the effects and reasons behind a young classical actor's decision to stop talking. No one knows why Massimo has vowed to stop talking. Other than speaking dialog from classical plays, Massimo refuses to say a single word. His father, a classic-literature professor believes it reflects to a disappointing love affair. His new girlfriend thinks Massimo is rebelling against his mother, a poet. A director learns of Massimo and commissions his mother to write a play about him. Though Massimo plays himself in the play, and does speak, he returns to silence when the play is finished.
A Greek father, estranged from his German wife, kidnaps his daughter from her busy career mother in Berlin, and brings her home to live with his family. An international custody battle follows.
The stories of three lonely people surviving a sweltering summertime in Athens are interwoven in this gentle romantic drama. Nikos used to be a merchant seaman, traveling around the globe to exotic places and testing his wits and his mettle in different situations. Now he is retired, living in Athens with his wife whom he no longer loves. While at the train station, he encounters a woman who faints more or less into his arms. From her, he learns that this day has already been special to her for two reasons: her husband just died, and it is her birthday. Curiously, this meeting sparks new life in him. Another man suffering through the hot Athens summer is a bank employee who gets calls every day at four p.m. from a woman who seeks to arouse him. What she succeeds in doing is rousing his curiosity, which he is likely to regret giving in to.
An 80-year-old widower, Mr. Elias, goes to his village (Perithorio, where he had been president of the community for twenty-four consecutive years) to vote in the municipal elections. There he meets his childhood sweetheart (Fotini, also a widow). Their youthful engagement had been broken off due to a misunderstanding, but now their love is rekindled and they are considering marriage, despite the opposition of Fotini's daughter. When one day the village madman announces their rendezvous, the elderly couple, panicked, take the bus and flee to Drama. There they spend carefree, tender moments, but Mr. Elias' son, Aristides, finds them and forces them to return. However, the big decision has already been made, and when Mr. Elias' pension for former mayors and community presidents comes through, nothing can stop the couple anymore. Fotini comes to Athens and, together with Elias, they visit her grandson.
In an inn in Trieste, Kyveli, wife of a political prisoner of the junta, falls in love with an old student of her husband, who has been distinguished for his activities against the dictatorship. But he will be forced to run away, along with his lover, as they are hunted by the police. Kyveli will go to Strasbourg to present evidence to the Council of Europe, which proves human rights violations in Greece, but the session is postponed and she now lives in a web of fantasies and unfulfilled expectations.
A 30-year-old man (Lefteris Vogiatzis) returns from America suffering an existential crisis. He goes to Corfu to see his sick mother and tries to find happiness through a desperate love ...
Taxidi Tou Melitos is about the fear that most elderly people experience: approaching death. Leon (Stavros Xenides) and Zaharoula (Betty Livanou) are heading out for their annual vacation at a summer resort. Instead of their usual carefree anticipation, their mood is subdued because their daughter has just married and is off on her honeymoon. Life is lonely without her and the couple cannot avoid the realization that death is not that far away for them. Once at the resort, Leon tries to overcome this nagging fear by taking a wild plunge in the ocean, naked, as he and Zaharoula are out walking on the beach. Taken up in the spirit of the moment, she joins him among the waves. The results, however, are not what they expected.
