Irish Film Institute -Photograph, The

Photograph, The

Director Nico Papatakis is best know for his association with Jean Genet and his controversial French film Les Abysses, which caused a storm at the Cannes Film Festival and almost ended the director’s career in the 1960s. His 1986 film The Photograph is a political allegory that comments on Greece in the 1970s. The story begins in 1971 as young Ilias (Aris Retsos), the son of a communist, grows tired of being ostracised in Castoria (Greek Macedonia) and decides to move to Paris. There he lives with a distant cousin who works as a furrier in a ghetto. Ilias has brought with him a photograph of a young woman. The old worker falls in love with the woman in the photo and considers returning to Greece to marry her. As for Ilias, he lies about the picture, claiming that the woman is his sister. Complications and misunderstandings ensue in a game of truth and falsehood. In what amounts to a modern version of an ancient Greek tragedy, the search for joy leads to catastrophe.
(1986. Colour. Dolby stereo SR. 102 mins.)

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