Triantafyllos Bostantzis

Writing about the Economic Crisis: The Greek Film Scripts of the Period 2009-2015

School of Drama, AUTh, Greece

The Economic Crisis that emerged in Greece after 2008 and its socio-cultural implications have
brought up new critical themes in contemporary domestic Art and, by extension, in
contemporary Greek Cinema. During the past decade, crisis seemed to ‘empower’ Greek
filmmakers with particular “dynamism and momentum”; Α series of art-house films appeared
on the screen that “innovate[d] in terms of narration, theme, language and ways of directing
and production, distinctions at film festivals and spark a variety of comments worldwide”
(Sifaki, Stamou, Papadopoulou 2022: 913).

An intriguing discourse concerning films’ scenarios was whether the stories were inspired by the Crisis or whether the script writers tried to explain the reasons for its appearance.

The present paper focuses on three indicative scenarios of the period 2009-2015 (Homeland,
2010, dir. Syllas Tzoumerkas; Boy eating the bird’s food, 2012, dir. Ektoras Lygizos; Worlds
apart, 2015, dir. Christopher Papakaliatis) trying to trace the links between the scripts and the
Economic Crisis, focusing mainly on elements of the explanatory framework of the stories.
Essentially, the paper explores how a political and social phenomenon, often unpleasant, has a
catalytic effect on the writing of stories and how this crucial factor is reflected up on the films
of a National Cinema. Inevitably, in the case of meta-crisis Greece, the paper could (and should)
not ignore the eclectic affinities between a) the crisis scripts and b) the films of the so-called
‘weird wave of Greek cinema’ made by directors such as Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel
Tsangari.

Triantafyllos Bostantzis has a PhD from the School of Drama (AUTh), a Master’s Degree (MA) in
Theatre Studies and a BSc in Cinema Studies. He is currently working on research projects; he
has presented various papers on the reception of Ancient Drama in domestic and international
conferences, while he has published various articles in scientific journals. In the past he has
directed theatre performances that have participated in festivals in Greece and abroad (Venice
International Experimental Art Festival, Biennale of Contemporary Art etc.). He has also
directed short films that have participated in Greek and International festivals.