Alexis Alexiou’s Sea of Glass will premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival

>Writer/director Alexis Alexiou’s (Tale 52, Wednesday 04:45) third feature SEA OF GLASS, will World Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Sunday 16 August with the filmmakers and cast in attendance.  A country noir road movie, SEA OF GLASS follows two women in an off-season Greek seaside resort who unexpectedly come together to confront the past, family stereotypes and the closed provincial community.

Co-written by Afroditi Nikolaidou and Alexis Alexiou, SEA OF GLASS stars Evangelia Adreadaki (Arcadia, Little England, Smac) and Christiana Matelska Toka in her debut feature role, alongside Michalis Iatropoulos (Cheap Smokes, Digger, One Day in August), Nikos Georgakis (Truants), Thanos Tokakis (Eftihia, Tokakis or What’s My Name) and Dimitris Tzoumakis (Wednesday 04:45).

Vangelio (65) is a prisoner in her own home, caring for her bedridden husband. Trapped in her routine and cut off from her two sons, she makes do with leafing through her collection of old guidebooks. The sudden death of her husband encourages her to make a ‘reckless’ decision: to go on holiday.  She books a room at a tourist resort a few kilometres outside Chalkida, the capital of Evia.  It’s March in the off-season, and there are very few people around.  At the fish tavern below the rental property, she meets 23-year-old Vicky, who runs the family business and looks after her difficult alcoholic father, who spends his days drinking with his buddies.  One evening, when he turns on his daughter, Vangelio steps in to protect her.  Violence rears its ugly head in the small seaside town, and like the waves of the stormy sea, the impact will be devastating.

SEA OF GLASS grafts elements from the rural gothic noir tradition and road movies onto the contemporary iconography of the Greek countryside.  Inspired by films from Thelma & Louise to The Postman Always Rings Twice, the film is a compelling and poignant story focussing on two women thrown into an unexpected alliance. “What connects them and poisons both their lives is domestic violence and oppression. But they are also linked by a common goal: the need to break free and find themselves” explains director Alexis Alexiou.

The haunting, evocative cinematography by Simos Sarketzis GSC (Little England, Behind The Haystacks) imbues the landscape of Evia with emotional resonance, reflecting the oppression and violence the characters suffer. A region of unique environmental diversity with its lakes, marshes, forests, beaches, hot springs and rocky outcrops, Evia has suffered reckless human interventions and extreme weather conditions including tragic floods and wildfires creating particular socio-cultural characteristics.  Writer Afroditi Nikolaidou comments on the film’s setting: “The ‘swamp’, as the character of Vicky likes to call it, is the prison in which she was born and grew up and which she dreams of escaping one day. It is the quicksand in which all the characters are stuck, figuratively and literally, watching their lives sink away. When ‘redemption’ comes, it will finally arrive like Mother Nature does when she’s bent on revenge: suddenly and brutally.”

Writer/director Alexis Alexiou studied physics and filmmaking.  Alexis’ first feature Tale 52 played in competition at Rotterdam and at more than 40 festivals, including Toronto and Sitges where it won the Best Screenplay Award. His second film Wednesday 04:45 screened in competition at Tribeca and at numerous festivals including Karlovy Vary and BFI London.  The film received nine awards from the Hellenic Film Academy, including Best Film and Best Director. Both films were voted best Greek Film of the year by the Greek Film Critics Association. In 2022 Alexis directed Iota Period Omega, a short sci-fi docufiction entirely shot on 8mm which was presented in competition at Dok Leipzig.

SEA OF GLASS is a co-production between Greece Bulgaria Cyprus, produced by TUGO TUGO PRODUCTIONS (Greece), in co-production with PORTOKAL (Bulgaria), BARK LIKE A CAT FILMS (Cyprus), in collaboration with FELONY FILM (Cyprus), MARNI FILMS (Greece), JUNGLE FILMS (Greece), CINNERENT (Serbia) with the support of HELLENIC FILM & AUDIOVISUAL CENTER (Greece), ERT (Greece), EURIMAGES, CREATIVE EUROPE, BULGARIAN NATIONAL FILM CENTER, FILM CENTER SERBIA, ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG OFFICE IN GREECE and the funding of THE CYPRUS DEPUTY MINISTRY OF CULTURE.

SEA OF GLASS has been picked up by Greek powerhouse boutique distributor Weird Wave (Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Rose, It was Just an Accident, Aftersun) with a theatrical release scheduled for Greece and Cyprus this FALL.

EIFF SCREENINGS:
Wednesday 12 August at 14:00 at Filmhouse 1 (Press & Industry)
Sunday 16 August at 20:15 at Cineworld Screen 2 (World Premiere)
Monday 17 August at 15:30 at Filmhouse 2