Xenia

After their mother's death, sixteen-year-old Dany and eighteen-year-old Odysseas cross the length of the country looking for the Greek father they have never met. Their aim is not emotional but legal: if he acknowledges them as his sons they can obtain citizenship. Born to an Albanian migrant, they count as foreigners in the country of their birth. Panos H. Koutras mixes the road story with pop music, fantasy sequences and saturated colour. Greece in crisis is not in the background but directly in front of them: closed hotels, empty buildings, the rise of the far right. The title comes from an abandoned hotel chain. The film screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2014, swept the Hellenic Film Academy awards including best film, best director and best screenplay, and was Greece's submission to the Academy Awards. Who it's for: Viewers who like road movies, queer coming-of-age narratives, and Greek cinema of the crisis years. Who it's not for: The tone keeps shifting and the fantasy sequences interrupt the realistic line. It also runs long, and the narrative comes apart at times.