Taking place more than a decade after the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Sofia Exarchou's Park is a harrowing snapshot of Athenian youth living in economically-ravaged Greece, a place where opportunity and optimism has eroded among the younger generations. Detailing the exploits of a group of teenagers of various ages, Sofia Exarchou's film is an exercise in atmosphere, mood, and visceral emotion, introspectively examining direction-less and broken characters, each of which feel completely trapped in their environment, many of which are raw in their rebellion to the state of their circumstances. The central character or focal point of the story is Dimitrius, an older brother, and son of a mother, whom herself seems to have accepted defeat, seemingly more interested in the bottle and an on-again-off-again relationship with a local marble craftsman. Dimitrius struggles to find work, or purpose, with the only semi-semblance of connection being what he shares with Anna, a young woman and ex-olympian, who herself is adrift. While Dimitirus is a character who finds himself romanticizing about the possibility of leaving, often seduced by the laughter and joy from the tourists, Anna is a character who seems unable to let go of her past olympic glories, dwelling on them, while only seemingly capable of drawing value or power from others through her physical attributes. Each of these characters sexual intimacy, their connection with each other seems more derived from circumstance and struggle than actual connection or choice, each simply trying to get through another hopeless day. The dichotomy is felt between the people of Greece and the other countries of the EU through tourists which visit the coast, which finds Dimitrius routinely romanticizing them, pining for the feeling the tourists seem to feel, one of relaxation, where there is a general sense of optimism about the present and the future. Park is pretty minimalist by design, having a quiet sense of desperation that is more felt than told, with dialogue being relatively bare-bones, as the filmmaker tells her story much more through visual design. Overcast skies, decaying buildings, barren fields, all serve a purpose in crafting Sofia Exarchou's story of a country which feels on the brink of collapse, with the a muted, washed-out color palate visually evoking the internal struggles of the characters and the environment which surrounds them. Sofia Exarchou's Park is a tale of circumstance and bleak prospects, yet the film never takes the easy route when it comes to creating sentimentality or drama, subverting typical escalation in such stories, instead being a film that ends much like it begins, a decision that in itself captures the quiet, all-encompassing hopelessness for Greece.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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