Ziteitai pseftis (2010) Reviews

• politics Greek style

  georgioskarpouzas2011-01-07

  This bitter political satire is based on a theatre play, later made to a movie, of which the current film is a remake.It's main focus is the clientelistic character of Greek politics which makes a well-meaning but naive Health minister to employ an ambitious young provincial with a talent for lying in order to handle the diverse demands of his volatile political clientèle.The provincial becomes the mastermind behind every move of the minister causing the envy of the minister's closest associates and of his good-looking wife, played by rising Greek media star Zeta Makrypoulia. Changes of fortune abound and finally the plot reveals that the lying provincial is not a bad person in heart although he never denounces lying as a survival strategy. A satire on Greek politics with the problems of endemic corruption, clientelism and favoritism and occasional links with crime, financial or otherwise, the movie does not avoid being commonplace and very probably will affirm the sense of moral and cultural superiority of Western European and North American viewers towards Greek but also general Mediterranean social realities. The cast includes actors that are very prominent in the present cultural scene of modern Greece and that will act as a magnet for the audience. Some comic occurrences are very memorable and responsive for a Greek audience although I can not guess whether they can be translated well in another visual and social culture. The movie ends with a quasi-moral tone. Although it contains elements of truth one should not base solidly his/hers estimation of Greek social and political mores on what he sees here.

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