Au bout de la nuit

Afti I Nihta Meni is about the perennial pursue of our dreams and the imminent failure we are facing while on the road. The scenario is promising but the implementation fails. Sophomoric directing, unbelievable dialogues, lack of interaction and the artificially staged scenes estrange the audience. The poor sound quality doesn't help at all making this film realistic. The best part of it is that it jumps on the Thrace-is-cool bandwagon (a trend that was started by Ola Ine Dromos), showing us great landscapes and scenery. For you non-Greeks, Thrace is at the crossroads of East and West, bordering Bulgaria and Turkey. It is the most underdeveloped but perhaps also the most beautiful region of Greece. It definitely makes great cinema to present natural beauty along with poverty. The even better part is that it follows the provincial "dog clubs" depiction of Ola Ine Dromos, one of the most prominent expressions of decadence, now raised to cult status by urban Greeks. Athina Maximou is a visual pleasure, while Dimitra Pappiou (Athina's vocal replacement) tries desperately to be upgraded from the dog singer she actually is to a "serious" singer. About Stamatis Kraounakis and his "worship me" mentality, just a line from the film: Stella is asked about her repertoire and she answers that it is the late Manos Hadjidakis (a music icon in Greece) and ... Kraounakis! Now that's what I call modesty. Single-handedly the most annoying line in the whole movie.