Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria

Greece, 1997, 115mins (Comedy)
Director Sotiris Goritsas

Written by Sotiris Goritsas
Produced by Dionysis Samiotis
Cast: Yiota Festa, Gerasimos Skiadaressis, Stelios Mainas, Katharina Zapatka, Lena Sabine Berg

A hilarious adventure of two 35 year-old ‘teenagers’ on the road to maturity.

As far as road trips go, Balkanisateur is a tragi-comic one that follows friends, Fotis (Stelios Mainas)and Stavros (Gerasimos Skiadaresis), on a misguided highway to Switzerland. Their get-rich-quick plan is to use their Greek drachmas to buy Bulgarian currency and then exchange it for Swiss dollars. Of course, in the manner of all best-laid plans, their dream goes up in smoke.

By placing his characters in foreign settings and having them negotiate comic encounters with various locals (particularly women), filmmaker Sotiris Goritsas astutely examines what it means to be Greek – although a different era of ‘Greekness’ where drachmas ruled rather than euros.

“The term ‘Balkanisateur’ is a sort of joke about the Balkans and having a tyre burst. A big ‘gademya’ (a big jinx) from the American “Goddamn it!”. Utter confusion.” Sotiris Goritsas

About the Director:
Born in Athens in 1955, Sotiris Goritsas studied economics at the University of Athens and Cinema at the London International Film School. He has directed many documentaries for Greek public television ET-1, as well as commercials. His feature films include From the Snow (1993), Brazilero (2001) and Pals (2007).

To buy tickets, watch the trailer and for more information about the Greek Film Festival 2013 please click here to visit the official website.