Avanos

The Greek filmmaker Panagiotis Charamis took part in the LIM | Less is More program in 2018 for the development of his feature film “Avanos” (Άβανος), an adaptation of his short film.

Synopsis

AVANOS follows Tasos, a detainee on a brief prison release, as he returns to his hometown near the Greece–Turkey border  to attend his mother’s memorial after 17 years away. There, he discovers that his ex-girlfriend Kiki’s teenage son might be his. As he searches for the truth, Tasos realizes that his uncle Pater—the village smuggler and ex-partner in crime—has lost his grip on reality and dragged the entire village into chaos, taking young Nikos down with him. As tensions rise, Tasos begins to suspect that Nikos might actually be Pater’s son. Hoping for redemption, he agrees to one last job : help Kiki escape and save Nikos from the life he once lived. But on the night of the heist, everything falls apart. Tasos watches helplessly as Nikos is killed. With nothing left to lose, he does the unthinkable—pulling the trigger on the man he once saw as a father : Pater.

Intentions

AVANOS tells the story of modern Greece in a time of austerity and desperation for its people. Through the “magical” and rugged landscapes of Eastern Thrace and the austere Greek faces, I wish to highlight the wild beauty of these places and the characters of the people of a country in constant search of inner salvation through a fundamental love story.

AVANOS tells the story of Tasos a character struggling like so many in my country today. Its narrative is familiar not only to Greeks but also to others from challenging backgrounds either on a personal or a national level. 

AVANOS depicts the harsh contrast between peace and chaos, love and hate, faith and blasphemy. In AVANOS violence is centre stage, constantly reminding the viewer of its ugliness yet also showing its redeeming qualities. It’s a rough cinematic experience focussing on the poetics of the wild.