Syllas Tzoumerkas's The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea is showing February and March, 2020 on Mubi as part of the series Direct from the Berlinale. Above: Youla Boudali as Rita“Bitch Town, You Wrecked Me!”“Bitch town, you wrecked me!” yells failed Euro-pop singer Manolis (Christos Passalis) midway through the film, in his on-stage outburst against his audience of regulars in the small provincial nightclub he sings in night after night.Manolis and everyone else in Sargasso are all the children of this very photogenic swampland of Western Greece, the wildly poor province that surrounds a shitty little town: Missolonghi—relic of the 19th century adored by the Romantics for its inhabitants’ suicidal fight against the Ottomans, and the deathbed of a lord with the name Byron. Bred from this land, or thrown in it for a sufficient amount of time, all characters here are sunk waist-down and stuck in the dark,...
- 2/24/2020
- MUBI
It seems as though you really have to be a Missolonghi native to appreciate the beauty of that swampy eel-fishing Greek town where the characters of The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea aimlessly drift. Take it from those who just happen to be stranded there, and the picture you’ll get will be drenched in dread and ennui. “I still feel like a stranger here,” a long-time transplant muses half way through Syllas Tzoumerkas’ third feature, “it’s something deep in my heart.” Of the Sargasso, that mysterious ocean gyre stretching across the Atlantic where the world’s eels return to spawn and die, this singular offering only bears the name. And there are hardly any miracles in Missolonghi, a town hiding secrets and daytime hallucinations like a sun-scorched Twin Peaks. Writer-director Tzoumerkas sets his third feature in a place where time ticks differently, if at all, and the result...
- 11/20/2019
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
“The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” takes place far from the eponymous body of water, and in its actual swampy locale — a glum eel-fishing community in western Greece — miracles are in distinctly short supply. But the title’s metaphorical implications of disorientation and immurement are felt in a stylish, many-stranded mystery that often casts viewers adrift in clashing tides of dark genre convention, nightmarish surrealism and fevered close-up character study. Greek writer-director Syllas Tzoumerkas’ third feature unreels and obscurely entangles the stories of two unconnected women, a dissolute female police chief and an abused eel-factory worker, in murky depths of small-town sin. The fishy stew that results maintains the antic, scratchy energy of Tzoumerkas’s striking 2014 festival favorite “A Blast,” though overplotting muddles its impact.
“Sargasso Sea” is assured further festival play following its premiere in Berlin’s Panorama strand, though it’s a challenging sales prospect: Its commercial fortunes...
“Sargasso Sea” is assured further festival play following its premiere in Berlin’s Panorama strand, though it’s a challenging sales prospect: Its commercial fortunes...
- 2/28/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
After a sudden suicide turns a small eel-farming town upside down, an investigation unearths troubling secrets about the town’s past. Those discoveries will bring together two women trapped in solitary lives, offering each a chance to find salvation.
“The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the third feature by Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas. Starring frequent Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali (“In the Fade”), the film will world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section.
Taking its name from the mysterious region of the North Atlantic, a swirling gyre of deep-blue water bounded by four ocean currents, “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the story of two women dreaming of escape.
Their arduous emotional journey echoes a remarkable natural phenomenon, when eels in Europe and North America reaching sexual maturity leave their habitats and swim hundreds of miles to lay their eggs in the Sargasso.
“The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the third feature by Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas. Starring frequent Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali (“In the Fade”), the film will world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section.
Taking its name from the mysterious region of the North Atlantic, a swirling gyre of deep-blue water bounded by four ocean currents, “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” is the story of two women dreaming of escape.
Their arduous emotional journey echoes a remarkable natural phenomenon, when eels in Europe and North America reaching sexual maturity leave their habitats and swim hundreds of miles to lay their eggs in the Sargasso.
- 2/22/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The first trailer to The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, the new drama from Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas (Homeland, A Blast), dropped Monday, whetting auteur appetites ahead of the film's world premiere at the Berlin film festival next month.
The drama reteams Tzoumerkas with his Homeland actresses Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali, here playing two very different women caught in a small eel fishing town in rural Greece.
Papoulia, a darling of fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (of The Favourite fame), plays Elisabeth, a once ambitious policewoman who reluctantly relocates from Athens back to the dead-end town where she grew up. There, a ...
The drama reteams Tzoumerkas with his Homeland actresses Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali, here playing two very different women caught in a small eel fishing town in rural Greece.
Papoulia, a darling of fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (of The Favourite fame), plays Elisabeth, a once ambitious policewoman who reluctantly relocates from Athens back to the dead-end town where she grew up. There, a ...
- 1/28/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The first trailer to The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, the new drama from Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas (Homeland, A Blast), dropped Monday, whetting auteur appetites ahead of the film's world premiere at the Berlin film festival next month.
The drama reteams Tzoumerkas with his Homeland actresses Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali, here playing two very different women caught in a small eel fishing town in rural Greece.
Papoulia, a darling of fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (of The Favourite fame), plays Elisabeth, a once ambitious policewoman who reluctantly relocates from Athens back to the dead-end town where she grew up. There, a ...
The drama reteams Tzoumerkas with his Homeland actresses Angeliki Papoulia and Youla Boudali, here playing two very different women caught in a small eel fishing town in rural Greece.
Papoulia, a darling of fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (of The Favourite fame), plays Elisabeth, a once ambitious policewoman who reluctantly relocates from Athens back to the dead-end town where she grew up. There, a ...
- 1/28/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea
Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas is finally getting ready to unveil his third feature, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea in 2019, reuniting with his A Blast actress Aggeliki Papoulia (we interviewed the Lanthimos regular back in 2012 for Alps) and co-writer Youla Boudali for this revenge thriller. The Greek-German-Swedish co-production is produced by his regular collaborator Maria Drandaki of Homemade Films and co-produced by Ellen Havenith of Prpl, Titus Kreyenberg of unafilm and Olle Wirenhed of Dragon Films. Papoulia and Boudali’s co-stars include Christos Passalis, Maria Filini, Argyris Xafis, Thanassis Dovris and Laertis Malkotsis.…...
Greek director Syllas Tzoumerkas is finally getting ready to unveil his third feature, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea in 2019, reuniting with his A Blast actress Aggeliki Papoulia (we interviewed the Lanthimos regular back in 2012 for Alps) and co-writer Youla Boudali for this revenge thriller. The Greek-German-Swedish co-production is produced by his regular collaborator Maria Drandaki of Homemade Films and co-produced by Ellen Havenith of Prpl, Titus Kreyenberg of unafilm and Olle Wirenhed of Dragon Films. Papoulia and Boudali’s co-stars include Christos Passalis, Maria Filini, Argyris Xafis, Thanassis Dovris and Laertis Malkotsis.…...
- 1/3/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Variety has been given exclusive access to the first teasers for Syllas Tzoumerkas’ female revenge story “The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea” – being sold at Afm by Jan Naszewski’s New Europe Film Sales.
Set in a small eel-farming town in the west of Greece it’s a story of two women, who live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. One of them is Elisabeth, a once-ambitious policewoman forced to relocate from Athens 10 years ago and now living a joyless, hung over life; the other is Rita, a quiet, mysterious sister of a local music star. When a sudden suicide case upsets the town and turns the local community upside-down, the two women who have been ignoring each other’s existence so far begin drifting toward each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other’s saviors.
Set in a small eel-farming town in the west of Greece it’s a story of two women, who live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. One of them is Elisabeth, a once-ambitious policewoman forced to relocate from Athens 10 years ago and now living a joyless, hung over life; the other is Rita, a quiet, mysterious sister of a local music star. When a sudden suicide case upsets the town and turns the local community upside-down, the two women who have been ignoring each other’s existence so far begin drifting toward each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other’s saviors.
- 11/1/2018
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 20th edition which runs August 15-23.
The 20th Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 15-23) has announced its official selection. Among nine films in the feature competition, there are three world premieres, including the new film by Kosovo veteran Isa Qosja, Three Windows And A Hanging. Qosja won the Special Jury Award at Sff with Kukumi in 2005.
Two other world premieres in competition are first feature films: Georgian director Lasha Tskvitinidze’s I Am Beso, and Song Of My Mother by Turkey’s Erol Mintas.
The list of debuts in the competition is completed with Berlinale titles Brides by Georgia’s Tinatin Kajrishvili, Land Of Storms by Hungary’s Ádám Császi, and Macondo by Sudabeh Mortezai from Austria.
Cure - The Life Of Another, the new film by Andrea Staka who won Heart of Sarajevo for best film in 2006 with Das Fräulein, will have its...
The 20th Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 15-23) has announced its official selection. Among nine films in the feature competition, there are three world premieres, including the new film by Kosovo veteran Isa Qosja, Three Windows And A Hanging. Qosja won the Special Jury Award at Sff with Kukumi in 2005.
Two other world premieres in competition are first feature films: Georgian director Lasha Tskvitinidze’s I Am Beso, and Song Of My Mother by Turkey’s Erol Mintas.
The list of debuts in the competition is completed with Berlinale titles Brides by Georgia’s Tinatin Kajrishvili, Land Of Storms by Hungary’s Ádám Császi, and Macondo by Sudabeh Mortezai from Austria.
Cure - The Life Of Another, the new film by Andrea Staka who won Heart of Sarajevo for best film in 2006 with Das Fräulein, will have its...
- 7/17/2014
- ScreenDaily
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