One of the most-anticipated Greek debuts of last year, Hristos Dimas´ "The Cistern" takes potentially kidpic material and spins a tale loaded with political resonance, warm human observation and semi-mystical moments. Setting is helmer´s birthplace Elefsis (an outer suburb of Athens) in 1974 and on the surface the movie is a last-summer-of-childhood exercise, with a group of 11-year-old boys fooling around, challenging each other to diving dares in a concrete water cistern, and playing soccer and other such pastimes. Meanwhile, the adults cope with greater problems like the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Unstated background to the whole movie is the period of military rule in Greece (1967-74), a time when the country went into a kind of weird social stasis. Pic largely focuses on a family of three sisters, and on the two sons of the middle sister, Koula (Yota Festa). Jonathan Holland