Black Field

Colour, 35 mm
Greece, 2009, 104 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Out of Competition

Synopsis

The visually captivating feature debut Black Field takes place in Greece in 1654. A seriously wounded Janissary arrives at a cloister situated on a cliff, and the sisters take him in and care for him. Sister Anthi, one of those who tends him, falls in love with the soldier and eventually helps him escape. The central focus of the film does not come out of its historical context but is derived from the relationship between the two main characters and, above all, from the quest for freedom and identity for young Anthi. The initially silent sister, hiding a surprising secret, discovers heretofore unknown desires that lead her to a radically altered view of herself. Debut writer-director Vardis Marinakis has succeeded in creating a powerful drama about the search for sexual and gender identity. Black Field is a visually refined story about the effort to liberate oneself from society’s rules and standards. The film excels through its sophisticated atmosphere and the great attention paid to production design.

About the director

Vardis Marinakis (b. 1971, Athens) graduated from London’s National Film School where he studied under leading British director Stephen Frears. To date he has shot four short films and a number of television commercials. The short Summer Love (Kalokairinos erotas, 2002) was successfully shown at several international film festivals, as was his latest short, Second Nature (Defteri Fysi, 2005), awarded at the Locarno IFF among others. The historical drama Black Field is his feature film debut.