Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

minch007 (only contains spoilers of a general kind)Disturbing, intense and creepy, this film at one level is a fairly straightforward story of a man who travels to his father's homeland and discovers the skeletons in the closet. Ewen Leslie as the haunted son Isaac seeking to lay the ghost of his dad Vasili in the mountains of Greece, Martin Csokas as his corrupted brother Nico and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the face of all refugee boys everywhere all do a fine job, the cinematography, score and directing work together well to create a menacing and disorienting view of the seedier side of Europe. At another level, this film explores the moral complexities of the refugee crisis. The curse that seems to follow Vasili's family can be interpreted as the guilt that lurks behind every decision to turn your back on another human being in desperate straits. And how easy it is to do that, given their overwhelming need, their anonymity, their foreignness, and the sometimes bald ugliness of their desperation. This film takes you unflinchingly into the heart of this "blackness" that consumed the soul of Vasili and eventually his sons, it slaps you unapologetically in the face with it. Vasili himself is a refugee, fleeing the devastation of post war Greece to Australia. Perhaps there's no guilt like that of a refugee who has left others to perish. There's no light at the end of this film, which I think is particularly fitting because there is no easy answer to the desperation of the millions fleeing to Europe and scraping an existence in the decrepit slums and alleys of the grand old cities. Just as it has for thousands of years, the situation fosters prejudice, exploitation and cruelty on all sides. You will appreciate this film, if not enjoy it, if you are interested in what is, and always has been, one of the greatest social, moral and even spiritual challenges to the illusions of our comfortable and sheltered lives.

storyscreen First and foremost, the Greek Tourist Authority (if such a body exists) needs to buy up and destroy every copy of this stodgy moussaka of a movie. It depicts Greece as a giant sh**-hole, populated by demented, ugly, bigoted and frequently dangerous maniacs. Though, to be fair, all the characters in this movie are unpleasant, including our "hero". As Isaac (Ewan Leslie in a tediously one-note performance) moves on, we're treated to the ugliest depiction of Paris ever on film, followed by a similar trashing of Budapest. The point of Isaac's quest is never entirely clear, though it may also be that by the time he finally connects with his brother and is told "the truth" about his father, I'd long since stopped caring. Quite how something like this gets funded is a mystery. Maybe the book it's based on has some worth (I'll never read it now). Maybe it just ticks all the right multi-cultural boxes. Whatever, it reflects well on no-one.

bettestreep2004 I saw this last night at the Melbourne Film Festival and had to be on my best behavior because the cast and crew were sitting directly behind me.I haven't read the book this is based on so I can't comment on it's adaptation but I did walk away thinking that this 84 minute film was about 10 minutes too long.Plenty of arty farty pretentious scenes that just had no need to be there IMO.None of the characters have been fleshed out - a glaring weakness by the writer and the lead, Leslie, delivered a frustratingly one note performance. There is only so many times one can deliver the 'F' word in a performance.There apparently is a very interesting story about people's pasts in the book - but this sadly didn't come across in the film.A very disappointing film.

ffuuut One of two Australian made films I saw at the Sydney Film Festival, both of which were set in Europe. Ewan Leslie was very good in the lead role as was Marton Csokas in a minor role late in the film, but the same can not be said for the actress who played the main characters mother. She seemed very poorly cast (age wise) and did not give a very consistent performance, as scenes with her felt very uneven.The film was shot well and in places not often seen in predominately English language films and the first half really set up the mystery and thriller like aspect, but it was let down badly by a very poor last third as it fell into an incoherent confusing mess, but maybe that was intentional as the character fell into that cycle himself.It was just very meh.