The central concept is a reminder of the Disney classic "Cool Runnings": five very different people unite in order to form the most unlikely national team - curling being for Greece what bobsledding is for Jamaica.
Niki Aggelidou is a former volleyball teen champion, now a struggling divorced mother of a teenage daughter and a disabled ten-year-old son. After yet another failed job interview and with her practical and financial problems piling up, she decides to change her life and follow a crazy dream: to form the first national curling team in Greece. Niki manages to persuade her reluctant sister Froso, whose life as a talentless hair dresser in a failing marriage has also reached a dead end, to help her in her venture. Together they also recruit Foivi, an actress whose career and fame had been built on her exposure to the media and constant presence on the gossip columns rather than her actual talent.
After some research, the three women find the Greek-Canadian curling champion Christos Melitis and ask him to become their coach. He is not thrilled with the idea, given his past disappointments with how things work in Greece, which have also turned him into a recluse. When he is finally persuaded to help, the four of them recruit the last member of the team, bubbly Cypriot Stallo, who spends her time going to all sorts of talent show auditions.
The newly formed national curling team will have to fight against corrupted entrepreneurs, bureaucracy, the general gloominess of the Greek situation under the economic crisis, as well as to conquer their own fears, inhibitions, and complete lack of experience with the sport.
Ethniki Ellados is abundant in social messages(unsubtly criticising corruption, discrimination, lack of support from the state, the rise of neo-Nazi groups in multicultural neighborhoods etc) to a degree that could be deemed patronising. At the same time, however, it is full of heartwarming and inspiring moments of well-written and well-acted drama, sprinkled with Giorgos Kapoutzidis' ("Sto Para Pente", "Savvatogennimenes") familiar comedic style.
Ethniki Ellados is a powerful TV series, that bravely tackles a lot of taboo issues of modern Greece and tells a story of hope and perseverance against all obstacles.
