O Theos agapaei to haviari

It is real easy to critic this film. But it is not exactly fair. Because it gives a large story in decent manner. For Catherine Deneuve as Catherine the Great and for the hard work of Sebastian Koch. For noble idea and for the interesting manner to reflect it. Sure, it is not great, remarkable or memorable. But, in each scene you feel the taste of salted sea and, in few, you imagine the taste of caviar. So, a pure Greek film, a pure Greek story.

I will agree with tinakewy's review. The screenplay was confusing a lot. I liked the actors a lot, especially the Greeks who were very serious with their roles. They didn't look like the usual Greek actors. I also really liked the mother of Varvakis when she came down to earth to talk with him. Her expressions and her eyes were very beautiful.

I would like to mention some technical issues that I noticed. Is it possible to have Out of Focus shots? There were lots of shots like this and there weren't a screenplay reason. It was a technical mistake. Even if the budget was low, controlling Focus is a basic thing. In some cases the video editing was a bit disturbing, too. You could tell the cuts. Also, the dubbing was noticeable in some cases.

I would really like to watch a great story, a great film as a Greek. But it wasn't that great.

Thank you.

Granted the move wasn't the best I have ever seen, and could have been better. If you take everything into consideration such as the limited budget and the complexity of the topic I think they did a good job of telling a very interesting story. Being Greek myself I had a very general idea of the topic prior to watching this film. It did a decent job of giving us the basics in the limited time available. You should watch this move and then do some research on the history to get a better understanding of what place.

I think a number of people are missing the moral of the story that is that your home is always where your heart is.

I don't wont to be spoiler but watch it regardless of its short coming and I am sure you will enjoy it.

Nice attempt, though it is obvious it needed better writing. Very good performances by Koch and Bioto,excellent direction of photography. What is more, is the fact that it is worth seeing it even though it goes very abruptly from scene to scene. Very good music by Minos Matsas.The poor part of the story is the supporting performances which are rather shallow, and not analyzed. Smaragdis, is a good director, decent, but he has never been in the position of creating a great and momentary film. Excellent editing by George Mavropsaridis, may be the best Greek editor at this time in Greek movie industry. Cameos are made by a number of well known Greek actors but the extensive use of English language during the film is not a beneficial factor of the movie.

One of the best films I have seen in my life!! Congratulations to everyone involved!

I found the direction wonderful, the costumes and sets were amazingly done and captured the era to a T!

Sebastian Koch was immaculate in his role of Ioannis Varvakis. I believe it was one of his best roles of his career. Ivan's performance was exceptional, and Marisha Triantafyllidou as Varvakis' daughter really impressed me.

As for the music, it was beautifully composed, it touched my heart deeply and it really filled up the film.