Hronis Pavlidis

Ariadne leaves, searching for the end of what torments her. The unraveling of the tangle will begin. Piece by piece, her anguish will begin to take shape. Like a magical image, the signs of the riddles she must solve will emerge. Riddles inherited from parental sin. The circle will close and open again, bringing either the solution to the drama or a dead end.

Four episodes, four instances from a man’s life covering 25 years, from 1965 in Germany to 1990 in Athens. The episodes seem to be irrelevant to one another, yet they all focus on male powerplay, reveal the self-consciousness and moderation of the protagonist’s idiosyncrasy and depict some special aspects of the Greek male mentality. Probably Nikos Panayotopoulos’ most personal film, covering a substantial period of his generation’s years, “I’m dreaming of my friends” is based on the book by Dimitris Nollas, looks a lot like a “road movie” and features an all-male cast, as if there’s no room for women in it.

Shadow puppetry is not only part of the heritage of East Asia; Greece had its own traditional form of this popular art. In this leisurely drama, set in 1950s Athens, Antonis Barkis (Kostas Kasakos) is the master puppeteer for a traditional shadow show. However, although he is still making a living, it is clear that other forms of popular entertainment will soon supplant this one. This does not improve Antonis' temper, and his assistant's desires to modernize their entertainments only make it worse.

After the loss of his mother, young Nikolas lives with his alcoholic and violent father in rural Greece during the 1950s. His monotonous daily life is shaken by the arrival of a shadow theater troupe in the village square. As Nikolas watches the performances, he experiences powerful emotions, recognizing fragments of his own life reflected on the screen. He begins to identify with the characters and engages in a dialogue both with Karagiozis—the beloved folk hero—and the puppeteer behind him. The cheerful spectacle becomes for Nikolas a dreamlike escape from his harsh reality. On the second night, he sneaks out of his home once again to join the audience of Karagiozis. But will his father’s strictness prevent him from reaching the place where he is supposed to meet the puppeteer the following morning? And what surprise does the puppeteer have in store for him?

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