The Red Lanterns

Five women live in a licensed brothel by the harbour at Piraeus. Each has a different past and a different plan for getting out: one wants to marry and leave, one is trying to clear a debt, one is ill, one never speaks. Under the same roof they hold on to each other. Then word comes that the houses are to be closed. Vasilis Georgiadis directed the Greek film from a play by Alekos Galanos, and it was one of the most watched productions in Greece at the time. The telling does not make a spectacle of the women; it gives each of them her own story and passes no judgement. Jenny Karezi and Mairi Hronopoulou are in the cast. The film was nominated for an Oscar in the foreign language category.