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In August 2011, The Guardian ran a two-page spread that wound up christening a brand-new cinematic movement. Written by Steve Rose, “Attenberg, Dogtooth, and the Weird Wave of Greek Cinema” began with two questions: “Are the brilliantly strange films of Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari a product of Greece’s economic turmoil? And will they continue to make films in the troubled country?” Greece, as it turned out, continued to be troubled, the Greeks continued to make films, and the Greek Weird Wave somehow stuck as a catch-all term to denote what Rose then hyperbolically called “the world’s most messed-up cinema.” But the several films that earned the label since have only questioned its meaning and applicability. Messed-up and inexplicably strange the descendants of Attenberg and Dogtooth no doubt remain, but the many different shades of weird they brim can hardly be accounted for by an increasingly empty buzzword.

After breaking out with a debut role in the film that ushered in the Greek Weird Wave and becoming one of his country’s most accomplished theater actors and directors, Christos Passalis makes his feature directorial debut with “Silence 6-9,” a haunting, melancholic love story that plays in competition this week at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

Passalis’ first feature premiered in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, where it earned rapturous praise from Variety’s Jessica Kiang, who described Passalis’ “absorbing, surreal, retro-futurist love story” as a “beautifully crafted solo debut.”

“After a beginning unmistakably located deep within the familiarly bizarro, alien reaches of the Greek Weird Wave aesthetic, Passalis’ solo directorial debut gradually distinguishes itself by moving to a more human and humane place,” she wrote.

The film begins one night with a stranger arriving in a strange town. As he walks down a deserted...

Sodium streetlights buzz. Antennas hum. Insects chirrup — or is that the bleeping of some faraway, half-dreamt electronic machine? The world of Christos Passalis’ sensitive, surreal, slow-reveal “Silence 6-9” is quiet, but its silences are full of strange, prophetic noise, if you just listen hard enough. After a beginning unmistakably located deep within the familiarly bizarro, alien reaches of the Greek Weird Wave aesthetic, Passalis’ solo directorial debut gradually distinguishes itself by moving to a more human and humane place, where the singing in the wires and the voices calling through the whine make pining Wichita linemen out of all its lonesome, liminal inhabitants.

A stranger arrives in a very strange town. It’s just after nightfall, in those glimmering, fading few hours between dusk and midnight that best suit Giorgos Karvelas’s clinical yet crepuscular cinematography. Aris — played by Passalis himself — is walking down a deserted, unkempt highway when two things happen,...

Bosnian war drama also wins best director and best actress.

Jasmila Žbanić’s Quo Vadis, Aida? won three prizes including best film at this year’s European Film Awards, which went ahead as a hybrid event in Berlin tonight (Dec 11).

Žbanić was also named best director by the European Film Academy’s (Efa) 4,200-strong membership, whilst the film’s star Jasna Đuričić won best actress.

In her acceptance speech, Žbanić dedicated her award to “the women of Srebrenica and mothers who taught us how to turn destruction into love. I hope it will encourage more female solidarity, female stories, female perspective in film,...

The film will receive the awards for best cinematography and best original score at the ceremony in December.

Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom has won two prizes at the European Film Awards, among the eight winners that have been unveiled ahead of the ceremony on December 11.

An eight-member jury met in Berlin to choose the winners in the categories of cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, make-up and hair, original score, sound and visual effects. All were chosen from the feature film selection of 53 films.

The winners will be honoured at the ceremony in Berlin on December 11.

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