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HOSTAGE
Written & Directed by: Constantine Giannaris.
Produced by: George Lykiardopoulos, Giannaris, Baran Seyhan & Jale Onanç.
Director of Photography: Panagiotis Theofanopoulos.
Edited by: Ioanna Spiliopoulou.
Music by: Nikos Patrelakis.
Released by: Koch Lorber Films.
Language: Greek & Albanian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Greece/Turkey. 97 min. Not Rated.
With: Stathis Papadopoulos, Theodora Tzimou, Giannis Stankoglou, Minas Hatzisavvas & Arto Apartian.

This 2004 drama, inspired by actual events from 1999 in Northern Greece, details the hijacking of a public bus by Senia (the engaging Stathis Papadopoulos), an Albanian who has illegally made his way through the mountains across the Greek border to eke out a living. He’s out on a mission to reclaim his honor (as well as some money owed him). Senia’s also part of a low-wage work force made up of virtual refugees, toiling at jobs no Greek actually wants (and which Greeks perceive as having been stolen from them).

Not only are the film’s themes familiar, but director Constantine Giannaris and cinematographer Panagiotis Theofanopoulos have also crafted a tense and gripping ambience that makes this movie – already owing much to the prototypical Dog Day Afternoon – a worthy, if somewhat predictable, contribution to the genre of psychologically suspenseful and claustrophobic thrillers.

Featuring a minimal soundtrack and shaky camera movements, the film aspires to verisimilitude, and mostly succeeds. Through its deliberately calculated pacing, the film does not head from one plot point to another, but ambles toward its resolution. In several instances, this unfocused quality works (particularly when we realize some of the hostages on the bus know each other – with one couple in the midst of an extramarital affair finding themselves interrupted on their way to a rendezvous), and at others it provides a small-town vibe of familiarity. As a media circus ensues, there are also surrealistic moments, with hostages using their cell phones to frantically talk to friends and family, spectators who have come to watch the standoff.

Nevertheless, the story ends up being too ambiguous, with a couple of threads never really followed through, or else depicted in a confusingly subtle, convoluted manner. Graced with touching performances, this periodically riveting work might, paradoxically, have resulted in a universally accessible tale of ethnic strife if it had clarified its specifics.

DVD Extras: The featurette emphasizes the fear of a disintegrating national identity, both on the part of the Greeks and of the Albanians, who are equally affected by the loss of their emigrating countrymen and women each year. Ironically, the real-life Greek hostages began to identify with their Albanian captor, which is hinted at in the film.

Giannaris admits he liberally took dramatic license at certain points – making one wonder at his inclusion of a disclaimer containing a caveat regarding the film’s fidelity (or lack thereof) to the facts, as well as to question whether starting the movie with Senia’s subjective voice-over was strategically off the mark, considering the realistically gritty material – and quasi-documentary form – that follows. Reymond Levy
February 14, 2007