Vassilis Mazomenos is a Greek director, writer and producer. In Exílio (2019) he decided to work with a very current theme: migration. The feature already opens referencing sad daily scenes of boats adrift, in which refugees pin their hopes. The film predates the case, but we cannot help remembering when the Greek government expelled and abandoned at least 1,072 refugees on the high seas. The complexity arises when we discover that the man adrift is a Greek who tried to flee his own country. Rescued by the coastal authorities, he becomes a kind of refugee within his own homeland. He becomes an outsider within the society in which he was raised. His first attempt at theft is a failure, he ends up in prison and suffers humiliation at the hands of his nationalist compatriots, who consider him practically a traitor. This, however, is only the beginning of a series of misfortunes that present Aris, regardless of his will. The cycle of horrors includes slavery, murder and various types of physical and psychological violence, perpetrated by those who consider themselves superior – in other words, whites with money. Aris’s journey is a spiral of humiliation and violence that sometimes flirts with the surreal. Some moments follow a narrative structure as if it were a dream, or more precisely, a nightmare. The actions are not connected logically and linearly, but because of the abuses suffered and absurdity found by the protagonist.
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Vassilis Mazomenos is a Greek director, writer and producer. In Exílio (2019) he decided to work with a very current theme: migration. The feature already opens referencing sad daily scenes of boats adrift, in which refugees pin their hopes. The film predates the case, but we cannot help remembering when the Greek government expelled and abandoned at least 1,072 refugees on the high seas. The complexity arises when we discover that the man adrift is a Greek who tried to flee his own country. Rescued by the coastal authorities, he becomes a kind of refugee within his own homeland. He becomes an outsider within the society in which he was raised. His first attempt at theft is a failure, he ends up in prison and suffers humiliation at the hands of his nationalist compatriots, who consider him practically a traitor. This, however, is only the beginning of a series of misfortunes that present Aris, regardless of his will. The cycle of horrors includes slavery, murder and various types of physical and psychological violence, perpetrated by those who consider themselves superior – in other words, whites with money. Aris’s journey is a spiral of humiliation and violence that sometimes flirts with the surreal. Some moments follow a narrative structure as if it were a dream, or more precisely, a nightmare. The actions are not connected logically and linearly, but because of the abuses suffered and absurdity found by the protagonist.
"Exile" 