with title likefemme fatale“It may come as no surprise where Greece’s presentation in the Oscars International Feature category is headed. The third adaptation of Alexandros Papadiamantis’s acclaimed novel follows the slow psychological unraveling of an elderly midwife as she struggles with the ever-worsening patriarchal society she assists. Although the director eva naithena And screenwriter Katerina Bei attempts to explore her protagonist’s state of mind, but it often gets lost in her confusing approach of mixing cold reality with vivid flashbacks and fantasy.
Marked by an endemic sense of alienation, “Murder” begins with a group of unidentified girls dancing in a circle singing a song about wishing there were only boys among them. Following a quote from the Greek poet Odysseus Elytheus about the inevitability of the past asserting itself in the present, Hadoula (Caryophyllia Carabetti) is introduced as she is often seen in the film: a woman helping herself. Walking fast through rocky terrain for delivery. To the dismay of the entire room, the baby is a girl, the latest in a seemingly unbroken string of female births on the Aegean island of Skiathos.
Although “The Murderesses” takes place in the early 20th century, its appearance and the sensibilities of the characters seem to belong to a much earlier period. The boys are almost completely ignored throughout the film, valuing them far more than the average society, and the women routinely use herbs and other treatments prescribed by Hadoula to ensure that they do not die. They try so that they can have a son. Nothing is accomplished by any of these attempts, and the expected pause of anticipation and subsequent depressive or angry reaction speaks volumes about the character dynamics at play here.
Hadoula, on her part, has three daughters and two sons. The latter have moved away from the village and are not seen, while the former remain and assist their mother, the eldest of whom is literally a shepherd. In addition to his exhausting daily routine of delivering disappointments, Hadoula also has to deal with his own troubles in the form of visions of his dead mother (Maria Protoppa).
First appearing as a silent spectator whose gaze pierces Haddoula as she delivers bad news to a patient, her mother quickly becomes a recurring presence. The ominous ancestor is a reminder of Hadoula’s inability to better the condition of her fellow village women in the present and in a flashback, where young Hadoula (Georgiana Dallara) is brutally trained to follow in her mother’s footsteps and believe that Appears as. The role of city’s midwife. These threads gradually increase in intensity until Hadoulah reaches breaking point, and a series of increasingly unbelievable events are triggered.
Given the obvious title, it might be easy to guess where Haddoula’s thoughts ultimately turn, but this progression is hampered by the programmatic nature of Nathena’s approach. There are several moments where she is lost in a dream or memory before suddenly waking up with a jolt, often clearly portraying the limitations regarding the main character’s confusion in the film. The society around her typically boils down to obvious types – an abusive husband, a blind priest, a drunken son-in-law – which in turn oversimplifies the turmoil Hadoulah faces.
“Murder” makes good use of two key assets. The first is Karabetti, who brilliantly carries the burden of depicting the physical and mental transformation of her character. Already wise but still strong in the beginning, her committed portrayal leads to some more bizarre swings between self-doubt and enthusiasm. The second is Skiathos itself, whose villages are built of layered stones and built along an extended ridge in the fog, providing an automatic sense of mystery that helps greatly in maintaining the mood of the film.
While “Murderless” is a deliberately constructed film, the parallels with other societies in other times become apparent long before its conclusion. After the final images, a Chiron appears, explaining the relevance of a specific plot point and connecting it to a historical and ongoing crisis. The sudden change in scale feels strange at best, especially when the set of circumstances seen in the film is presented in such extreme, broad strokes. Although “Murderess” is not without its charming moments, the inflexibility of its approach proves to be a fatal flaw.
