LOGLINE

What is “progress” for Makis, is a threat for Maria. A car accident brings them closer. The orgasmic taste of Mcnuggets even closer. But it takes much more to be together

SUMMARY

The long motorway crosses the city from one side to the other. It floats like a river, connecting two different worlds: the modern world of the airport with the deserted, working class villages. Makis, comes from the modern world. He applies black hawk-shaped stickers to the transparent sound barriers of the motorway. The stickers prevent the small birds from crashing to the barriers and keep the road safe. Maria lives in the old world, in an isolated settlement of a few elderly people, who lived off the “River” and whatever is washed “ashore”. Maria collects the dead birds which end up on the poor community‘s dinner table. Makis’ so called “progress” is a threat to her world. When Makis emerges in Maria’s neighborhood to finish his job, she stages a car accident to get rid of him. Makis runs Maria over. Driven by his sense of doing things right, Makis comes closer to Maria, offening a compensation she grabs his money and her community gradually upgrades. Makis’ wish is to make the injured girl happy. He guides her to his world, a world unseen by her. And their common passion for Mcnuggets brings them even closer. But Makis’ money is running out. And Maria’s people don’t want to go back to the old days. Now, that Makis is actually broke and desperate, it is Maria’s turn to rescue him. For her world, taking his side, is a betrayal. Therefore, chased from their “solid” worlds, Makis and Maria, have to find another, a better world.

SHORT BIO of Director

Born in Athens. He studied Sociology at the University of Crete and History of Cinema (MA, University of Crete). His short, midlength and documentary films True Blue (2016), Democracy: The Way of the Cross (2013), A Silent Sea (2012), Seeders’ Seed (2011), On the Butcher’s Bench (2006), and The Long Hall (2005)were selected for numerous European film festivals and awarded in Greece.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“The River” is an existential love story of two people, who struggle to find themselves and their position in the world. Atragicomedy film in terms of a fairy tale, about two different worlds, two “opponents” and their way to be one. Like in all fairy tales, the film contains elements of the real world: The enormous land cut that looks as a River, the eternal flow of the cars, the ambience of the motorway that sounds as a river, the stickered birds on the transparent panels across the motorway. In other words, a draw of a virtual River, that crosses the big City, linking the two opposite worlds, the modern and the old. All these elements do exist in the region of Athens, Greece. However, in the film, the region is never been called and seen as Athens, but as a neutral place that can be set anywhere in the world. Makis’ world is the colorful, Americanized place of wealth and much waste, with the typical road-movie spots: The big motorway, the big cars, the fast food diners, the huge parking lots. Makis, devoted on serving the common good, drives up and down the Motorway as a lonely knight with his only pal, “Goliath”, the immortal van. On the other pole, lies Maria‘s tiny and isolated world, a Mad Max look alike community, that survives mostly from the modern world’s waste.
Maria is like the “Princess”, her Mother on the wheelchair stands as the “Queen”, Kostas is the evil and ambitious Maria’s lover and the aged people wait for the birds to crush into the sound barriers. Both worlds, seem as solid environments for the two characters to live in, as “a place to be”. But life is more chaotic than the characters think. Just as like the carefree birds that fly around. Their unique and strong eyesight will warn them if something is wrong. But birds, cannot discriminate a very simple thing that stands in front of their eyes: the transparent panels. The shock that they get, it might turn to be crucial for their existence. Makis and Maria will go on after their own crush, till they‘ll find their way to be free. The general tone follows Hollywood’s classic films. The style is closer to an ironic and often grotesque depiction of reality, reminding Cohen’s cinema, blending genres from melodramas to road movies.

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