Mythopathy

A story of growing up that begins in the middle of the sixties, runs through the seventies and ends in 1981. Stavros is a boy whose imagination works overtime; he changes the meanings of the classical myths to suit himself, and the inventions produce strange effects in the people around him. In the early seventies Greece is under a military junta, and the boy’s first loves, first disappointments and first political involvement all develop on that ground. Tasos Boulmetis wrote the film largely out of his own life, as he had done before in A Touch of Spice. The Greek title means the south wind. Giannis Niaros takes the lead, with Themis Panou and Maria Kallimani in the cast. The narration uses nostalgia without prettifying the period; the shadow the junta years cast over a childhood stays inside the film.