Apples

by Christos Nikou

Synopsis

Logline

As an unpredictable, sweeping pandemic causes people to develop sudden amnesia, a man finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help him build a new life. His treatment: performing daily tasks prescribed by his doctors on cassette tape, and capturing these new memories with a Polaroid camera. Greek writer-director Christos Nikou’s debut feature is a surreal and enigmatic work, a beguiling exploration of identity and reality.

Synopsis

Amidst a worldwide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia, middle-aged Aris (Aris Servetalis) finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities. Prescribed daily tasks on cassette tapes so he can create new memories and document them on camera, Aris slides back into ordinary life, meeting Anna (Sofia Georgovasili), a woman who is also in recovery. Through images deadpan, strange and surreal, Greek writer-director Christos Nikou posits a beguiling reflection on memory, identity, and loss, exploring how a society might handle an irreversible epidemic through one man’s story of self-discovery. Are we the sum of the images we compile and display of ourselves, or are we something richer, and deeper?

Specifications

Greece/Poland/Slovenia 2020 90mn 4:3 Greek 1st Feature Film

Original title: Mila

Written and Directed by

Christos Nikou

Co-writer

Stavros Raptis

Original Title

MILA

Produced by

Boo Productions (Iraklis Mavroeidis, Angelos Venetis, Aris Dagios, Nikos Smpiliris) & Christos Nikou

Lava Films (Mariusz Włodarski)

Executive producers Cate Blanchett, Coco Francini, Andrew Upton (Dirty Films)

In coproduction with Perfo Production (Ales Pavlin, Andrej Stritof), Dirty Films, Musou Music Group & NOVA

With the support of

Greek Film Centre, Polish Film Institute, Creative Europe Media program and Ekome

Cast

Aris Servetalis

Sofia Georgovasili

Anna Kalaitzidou

Argiris Bakirtzis

Crew

director of photography Bartosz Swiniarski

edited by Giorgos Zafeiris

original score The Boy

casting director Stavros Raptis

line producer Sevi Morou

sound designer Leandros Ntounis

sound engineer Kostas Koutelidakis, Saso Kalan, Tom Lemajic

art direction Efi Birba

costumes Dimitra Liakoura

make up Kiriaki Melidou

production manager Teta Apostolaki

Bio-FIlmo

Christos Nikou was born in Athens in 1984.

His short film KM participated in over 40 international film festivals, including Rotterdam, Stockholm, Palm Springs, Sydney, Tallinn Black Nights, Interfilm Berlin, and winning the Best Short Film Price at the Motovun Film Festival of Croatia

For the past ten years, he has worked as an assistant director on the feature films DOGTOOTH (Yorgos Lanthimos) and BEFORE MIDNIGHT (Richard Linklater), as well as 4 BLACK SUITS, NOBODY, CHRISTMAS TANGO, A GREEK TYPE OF PROBLEM and 7 KINDS OF WRATH and APPROACH.