Strella
STRELLA, the name of one of the characters in the film, is a play on words, a combination of the female name Stella and the Greek noun Trela (madness, lunacy, or extravagance).
Yiorgos is released after having served a 14-year sentence for a murder he committed in his native village. He spends his first night of freedom at a cheap hotel in the centre of Athens where he meets a transsexual prostitute named Strella. They sleep together and are soon a couple. Yiorgos’ past catches up with him, but with Strella at his side, he hopes to be able to find a way out.
“STRELLA is the kind of story told at dinner parties, a kind of urban legend. These stories usually capture an element of mass consciousness, making direct references to archetypical myths, most often Greek. Which is exactly what STRELLA’s heroes are: Greeks, living in a country both ancient and contemporary, where the need for a new European identity and a new value system is more pressing than ever.” (Production notes)
Having been rejected by state funding bodies, Panos H. Koutras was obliged to make his film without any financial support whatsoever. All the major production companies also turned him down. And so STRELLA became a completely independent production; filmed over a period of almost ten months, nearly all the roles are played by non-professionals.
details
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Runtime
113 min -
Country
Greece -
Year of Presentation
2009 -
Year of Production
2008 -
Director
Panos H. Koutras -
Cast
Mina Orfanou, Yiannis Kokkiasmenos, Minos Theoharis, Betty Vakalidou, Argiris Kavidas, Akis Ioannou, Yiannis Siradakis, Yiorgos Mazis -
Production Company
100% Synthetic Films -
Berlinale Section
Panorama -
Berlinale Category
Feature Film
pictures from the movie
Biography Panos H. Koutras
Born in Athens, Panos H. Koutras studied filmmaking at the London Film School and at the Sorbonne in Paris. From 1985 to 1995, he kept going back and forth between both cities and made several short films screened in festivals throughout the world. In 1995, he founded in Athens his own production company, 100% Synthetic Films, and started writing his first feature film, The Attack of the Giant Moussaka, an “unidentified filmic object” released 4 years later, quickly achieving cult status. He made a complete turnaround with his second film, Real Life, a drama which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the National Critics Award in Greece in 2004. His third film, Strella, was selected in the Panorama section of the 2009 Berlin Film Festival and in many other international festivals. Xenia is his fourth feature film.