Matchbox

Yannis Economides's 2003 Greek film is a family portrait set in a flat on the outskirts of Athens and consisting almost entirely of shouting. Dimitris, middle-aged, cannot agree with his business partner about opening a new shop and is in constant conflict at home with his wife and children. For eighty minutes the film shows that conflict without a break. Economides's method is to use dialogue loaded with slang and profanity like music: the speech overlaps, nobody listens to anybody, and the sound itself becomes the film's violence. That manner opened a vein in Greek cinema and shaped the generation that followed. The source of the class anger is never explained, only its result is shown. Who it's for: viewers interested in Greek independent cinema and realist accounts of domestic conflict. Who it's not for: anyone bothered by constant shouting and heavy profanity, or expecting narrative development and resolution.