After three shorts, one local film maker is set to start shooting a full length film in Cyprus. He talks to ZOE CHRISTODOULIDES
He sits rolling cigarettes one after the other while next to him stand two empty bottles of Perrier. He looks up at me almost suspiciously from amid a haze of smoke. “Do you want me to speak honestly?” he asks. The question comes as somewhat of a surprise, but the fact that I answer affirmatively seems to put him at ease. “Good,” he replies. “Because you know, some people don’t like it when you speak honestly.”
Kyros Papavassiliou is a budding local filmmaker trying to make good films. It almost sounds a little too simplistic to put it that way but Kyros is adamant about this. “I have a sense that here in Cyprus not many people actually know what good cinema really is. There’s not even a special venue dedicated to them. You just have to sit around and wait for events like the Cyprus Film Days.” I take it then, that he doesn’t think much of mainstream Hollywood? “They are manipulative,” he replies. “They don’t allow the viewer to create his own world, it’s like getting onto a rollercoaster for the thrill and fun of it but many times they don’t touch your soul.”
And if a good film is one that touches your soul, Kyros seems to have raised a few eyebrows. With his last short – In the Name of the Sparrow – screened as part of an official competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the experience proved to be just the push he needed to keep on doing bigger and better things.
Kyros never intended to be a filmmaker. Instead, he went off to America to study Music and Philosophy, then moving to Greece where he busied himself with various odd jobs. And it just so happened that he began working as fifth production assistant for “some TV series”. He then slowly got into film after watching tributes to some great directors of our time, and before he knew it, he bought a mini DV camera and started editing on his computer. “I felt a natural urge to start making films. I was walking through Athens experiencing a different life tempo and my eyes were moving like a camera.”
Then came his first relatively unknown short that was dedicated to a friend of his that died and things took off from there as he persevered in the industry. But with his third short taking him to Cannes, he admits that it was only after he got there he realised how important the whole affair was. “You hear about Cannes but you don’t really know what it’s like until you get there,” he explains. “Outside the auditorium it’s like a parade of celebrities, fans, parties, drugs and people who meet their idols. But inside the auditorium it’s true quality; you realise what good cinema is really all about.”
Armed with plenty of inspiration and a little faith that there’s an audience out there that wants to watch his films, he then got working on his first full length feature that’s to be shot here in Cyprus in March and April. Now busy with all the pre-production, the so-called Impressions of a Drowned Man is based on a suicide note by well-known Greek poet Kostas Kariotakis. “But it’s not biographical, in fact the whole thing is metaphysical,” Kyros points out. The film, which takes on board the theme of self deception, will be filmed with Greek actors in old Nicosia and Larnaca. One of the main actors – Christos Patsalis – has already received acclaim for his role in the award winning Dogtooth.
Interested in creating a moving experience for the audience without much rationalisation, the conversation turns to how hard it is to get anywhere as an independent filmmaker, especially working in Cyprus. “You have to persevere. You have to have faith. It’s very strange when you do something that no one understands the process or hardship around it.” Confessing to being broke “all the time,” he thanks God for the funding received from the Ministry of Education and Culture. “But the budget is still tight and because of the crisis these days you can’t expand your budget through private funds,” Kyros explains. “I might go to jail after this film,” he jokes. But jokes aside, where would he like to see himself in ten years time?
“In where?” he says sporting a shocked expression. He then laughs out loud. “I don’t really think about ten year’s time. Ambition brings a lot of suffering. My only ambition is to be in love with someone but I can’t even afford to do this because you suffer a lot.” Guess he meant what he said about being honest at the start of the interview. For now, he seems happy enough to be in love with his director’s viewfinder that he fiddles like putty in his hands. “You come closer to your heart through this. I feel calm.”
