Reviewed by James Karas
To the Wolf
is a cross between a documentary and a fictional story shot in the mountains of
western Greece, around Nafpaktia.
The film is the
brainchild and product of Aran Hughes and Christina Koutsospyrou who spent
several months over two years in the mountainous village and filmed the locals
as they went about their business. The people knew that they were being filmed but there was no script and no
plot. The directors want to give their impression of the lives of these
peasants in an atmosphere as gloomy as Hades.
In the few days that we
spend with the families of two shepherds, Giorgos Katsaros and Adam Paxnis, and
a few villagers, it rains incessantly and the only light we see is at dusk or in
the bleakly lit interiors at night.
From the mountainside
where the villagers raise goats, sheep and cattle, we can see some spectacular
vistas of mountains and gorges but Hughes and Koutsospyrou do not want to
concentrate on that. This is not a National Geographic tour of the splendours
of Western Greece.
The directors dwell on
the faces of the peasants that are not so much old as mythical with skins that
look as if they were ploughed. Were it
not for some light bulbs and primitive plumbing, the interiors of the houses would
resemble Homeric dwellings with primitive fireplaces burning a few logs. The
men sit by the fire for warmth and smoke cigarettes that they rolled themselves.
There are no young
people to be seen anywhere. The village priest, looking unkempt and ancient,
tells us that all the young people have escaped from the village and only the
old are left behind.
The film touches on the
financial crisis as the villagers speak of harsh economic conditions and
hunger. The film was made before the
economic crisis became critical and we can only assume that these people had a
problem surviving even before that.
The film does develop a
sort of plot with the fate of Giorgos who cannot cope with the situation and Adam
who is the eternal survivor. A dramatic scene is suggested and heard at the end of the movie
but we are spared the gory details.
The movie is like a
poem that depicts the dark sky, gloomy atmosphere and difficult life of people
up in the mountains. Like a poem, the film gives us the impression of its
makers and is not necessarily true in fact. The sun does rise, the sky does
clear and the people of those villages laugh and enjoy life at least some of
the time. Hughes’s and Koutsospyrou’s depiction of them is not intended to be a
documentary representation but in the end, it is an incomplete image. If it
were a painting depicting a bleak landscape with animals and ancient people leading
miserable lives, it would be a convincing portrait. As a 74-minute film, it is only an interesting
and not necessarily convincing snapshot of a moment in time in the life of
these peole.
No comments:
Post a Comment