Adam

Short film/Greece  

2022/25' 

Αfter their award-winning film Wreathless, writer/director George Sefer and the Belladonna Pictures team are about to release their second more ambitious short film ADAM, starring Petros Maliaras and Panos Lekos, premiering January 7 on the Belladonna Pictures channel on YouTube

 

 

Adam is born by the River. The first thing he sees is a stranger carrying him back into the freezing water. The first thing he experiences is how that same stranger tries to drown him. 

 

Surprisingly, the man decides to spare his life and adopt him. Adam will grow up by the river, at the mercy of his new father.

  

 Adam captures us from the first scene. 

The image of the young man (Panos Lekos) emerging / born from water with the immediate consequence of his violent drowning in it by a primitive-like man (Petros Maliaras) a guardian of an irrational natural balance (?) feels like a punch to the stomach.

When the man decides to break the vicious cycle of death and allow the young man to live, naming him Adam, a peculiar father-son relationship develops, violent and manipulative on the part of the man and ominous from the beginning.

Adam is looking forward to discovering the world finding his place in it, but is restrained by the suffocating supervision of his "father". 

Panos Lekos and Petros Maliaras

The nature of Imathia, the icy waters of the lake and the muddy shores of river Aliakmonas with its dense vegetation, co-star in the film, referring to the elementary raw instincts of the two characters. 

The river water, a symbol of purity and serenity, becomes a gateway, transforms into dark, tenebrous and miry and ends up as a weapon for murder.

Adam wanders in the environment, possessed by curiosity and primitive instincts, his own and that of his guardian.

In the literature of the fantastic the forest is the place where reality recedes and where the laws of the universe alter. Adam's universe is irrational and dystopian, visceral and cruel without clear boundaries and without explanations, it raises more questions and is sparing in the answers.

Petros Maliaras

In the leading roles, the unquestionably talented Petros Maliaras, plays the part of the lonely man/ father with devotion, sincere and intuitive he conveys the brutality and cruelty of his character, along with wild tenderness and pain, with all his means of expression - face, kinesiology and voice. He emerges from mud -not water- both man and a force of nature.

We fear him and at the same time we sympathize with him.

Newcomer Panos Lekos, a student of Maliaras in the amateur theater groups of the Municipal Theater of Veria, holds his own, an equal at the side of his teacher, attributing the fragile, innocent inquisitive and potentially rebelious Adam with vigor, intensity and restrained passion. 

 There is real chemistry here.

Panos Lekos 

Creator of Adam, George Sefer, proves once again that maturity often has nothing to do with age.  

In his second short film, he confronts the inhospitable environment of river Aliakmonas and emerges a clear winner, taming both the elements of nature as well as the acting talent of both his teacher and his classmate in the theatrical workshops of Veria, delivering a compelling film, always with the help of his cinematographer, the exceptional Philip Priovolos-Tasikas.

Adam -like Wreathless- springs from the director's unconscious and although seemingly simple in its structure, it is complex and multi-layered in its conception, dealing with father-son relationships, power, violence, manipulation and control, generational conflict, loneliness and raising elementary questions about our place in the natural environment, the universe, human nature itself, and human suffering.

Despite its raw realism, Adam could be seen as a sci-fi film or one of existential quest, and without betraying its end, one of the best episodes of series like Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone.

It is worth noting that in addition to writing and directing, Sefer also participated in the composition of the original soundtrack of the film along with Giacomo Ranocchia, Charikleia Oursouzidou and Eugene Varaklis.

Writer/Director George Sefer

In the words of its director: "Adam" is a film covered in mud, water and tears.

The narrative centers around two characters that develop a doomed father-son relationship, as they try to survive isolated by the river side. Created with incredible love, persistence, and a fundamental respect of irreverence, "Adam" marks our second film production.

The short was set up against all odds, despite the pandemic and the constraints presented by it, as well as all of the difficulties that befall independent productions.

Yet, we are very proud and privileged to present our film, and hope that viewing it might be at least some indication of how much fun our team had creating it.

As a filmmaker, I have always been perplexed by the notion of the choices that we have, and our inability to properly tackle them.

What if somebody wants to be a father, but is not able to? 

What if someone grows up in special circumstances and is not aware of it? 

All this and more created our "Adam".

Adam has already been honoured with awards at international and domestic film festivals, including the one for best Greek short film at the 2021 Thessaloniki Free Short Festival.

 You can now watch Adam here     

              You can find the Greek version of my review HERE

Wreathless

Read about and watch George Sefer's strangely funny,

 crude, poetic and surreal awarded short film.

From 'Belladonna Pictures'

 

Wreathless

 

Short film/Greece

2020/8' 26''

Leonard (George Sefer) is in a void with a radio and a worn out photo. He 's been there for such a long time, he now seems to belong there, young and old at the same time.

His monotonοus routine is interrupted by 'visitors' who suddenly appear surprised, ignorant and terrified.

Leonard does not welcome them nor does he confort  them, he taunts and abuses them and as soon as he gets bored, he 'helps' them get through to the darkness. First he removes from them something of their own. What they consider valuable becomes his trophy.

When an old woman appears, Leonard seems to react differently. Her engagement ring reminds him of something. The woman is strangely familiar. Unable to remember, Leonard leads her into the darkness.

Confused, Leonard looks first at the ring and then at his photograph.

It is a picture of a young couple.

In it, Leonard smiles at his beloved, who seems strangely familiar to us.

Alone in the void, Leonard is still waiting for her.

This story is told by the 8-minute short film 'Wreathless, now available for streaming on Belladonna Pictures on Youtube

What makes this strangely funny, crude, poetic and surreal film really admirable, is that it marks the first cinematic attempt of the then high school student (!) and now film student, George Sefer, from Veria Greece, who wrote the script, played the leading role and directed it with the help of a group of young filmmakers, he co-founded, under the name 'Belladonna Pictures'.

In the leading role, Sefer -reminiscent of Jared Leto's Joker in 'Suicide Squad', is intense, evocative, truly fearless showing real acting skills. This is not by chance, since from a very young age he' s been participating in amateur theater groups of the Municipal Theater of Veria under the guidance of the charismatic teacher and mainly responsible for the theatrical revival of Veria, Petros Maliaras.

Sefer in his directorial debut serves the story in an exemplary manner, showing maturity, knowledge of technique -guiding actors, camera movement, lighting, editing- and in collaboration with young cinematographer Philip Priovolos-Tasikas.

Special mention to the original music of Sammy Copley

George Sefer

Having already won 2 awards (Best High School Film Award at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and Best Youth Film Award 18-20, Camera Zizanio-Olympia Festival) and with 10 official selections in international film festivals under his belt, the future for the young filmmaker and the team that surrounds him, looks extremely promising.

You can watch Wreathless here:

George Sefer and the Belladonna Pictures team have released the trailer for their second, more ambitious short film entitled ADAM, starring Petros Maliaras and Panos Lekos, which you can watch right here:

You can find the Greek version of my review HERE

Into the Wild : A love confession to my favorite film