Tungsten

A film with a very ugly look which you can't blame entirely the director. Even without the cheap digital black and white photography this is how Athens looks like. So if you're looking for lush photography in the style of Dogtooth or Alps better skip this picture entirely. It seems the director really is interested in his characters but the film fails to pack a punch mostly due to his insistence to not push them to the limits. Of course there is a lot of swearing (as in most Greek films) which after the first five minutes becomes tiresome. The film's main metaphor-trying to equate human actions with electricity-is rather clumsy. Obviously these people have a lot of problems in their lives even without a power cut. What's the purpose of including this plot element if you're not going to use it as a gimmick to build up some tension? There is also some casual racism,which could have been used to generate some physical violence in the third act but nothing happens. Dialogues are quite generic, the script definitely needed a couple more drafts before filming started.

I saw this film at the Cyprus International Film Festival (CYIFF) in Nicosia in the presence of the director Giorgos Georgopoulos who gave a brief Q&A. In my humble opinion, it is a cinematic masterpiece that deserves to be screened and praised in every single city that houses a film theater. Heartbreaking and dark, yet honest and real, it is masterfully filmed. Whether you love cinema or you are just intrigued by the current situation in Greece, make sure not to miss it. Films like "Tungsten" are rare gems that only come once in a while. I highly recommend it and I hope it gets all the success it deserves. Loved it! Loved it!

In amongst the stereotypes of a bad soccer team, a worse economy and a tendency to cook lamb for vegetarians, the Grecian penchant for visceral cinema has largely been forgotten. One film that encapsulates this rawness is Tungsten, a cathartic, non-chronological story from writer-director-producer Giorgos Georgopoulos.

The film leads us through a day in the life of several hard-luck battlers, trying not to succeed, but merely make it through the day without failing. A middle-aged transit officer (Vangelis Mourikis) asks his brother to help him out of debt and keep his family together. Two young hoodlums (Omiros Poulakis and Promitheas Aliferopoulos) walk the streets aimlessly, scrounging for money, drugs and any stimulation at all, while a crabby middle manager (Tasos Nousias) tries in vain to balance his dead-end job and faltering abusive relationship.

The stories of this sorry but sympathetic bunch of individuals often intersect in amusing and unforeseen fashion, giving Tungsten a layered touch that seems to imply the commonality of each person's struggle, despite coming from different backgrounds and heading in different directions.

Sharp editing and a piercing soundtrack compliment the monochromatic cinematography perfectly. The script is explicit, but never offensive, instead deftly illustrating the extent to which each well-meaning character has become a by-product of his stigmatic environment.

And while Tungsten gets all the 'tangibles' right, they all serve to accommodate a film brimming with metaphors. Due to a worker's strike, the city is plagued with frequent power outages, symbolic of the intermittent false hope given to these people 'forgotten in the dark'. Even the title has meaning. Tungsten has the highest boiling point of all metals, reflecting the intense stress and pressure suffered by the subjects on display. They bend but refuse to break, until a somewhat ambiguous but extremely memorable final curtain throws down the heavy hammer of reality.

*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review. If you're looking for a writer for your movie website or other publication, I'd also love to hear from you.*

'Tungsten" is a film about the ugly face of modern Athens. A face that we all know that exists, in other cities too (even in a different way), but try to avoid it, to pretend that it has nothing to do with us- but it does. Families full of debts, relationships in lack of communication, friendship and dreaming, violence, anger and despair are the characteristics of the heroes' lives that haunt them and almost drive them mad, doing things that could take them out of their sadness and boredom. The B/W color gives the film a dramatic tone, stresses the darkness in which the heroes are trapped, while the urban setting, industrial, with huge highways and working class' neighborhoods, puts us right into that miserable routine. Does the light ever come back? Spectators are about to answer this question in the end of the film, which, in conclusion, is about a city and its habitants that (both) need to be loved and start all over.

7,5/ 10