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SFFILM Festival

Chevalier

Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari

Greece | 104

24 Apr
Sun, Apr 24, 2016 at 8:15 pm PT

Description

Boys will be boys … and so will men when left to their own devices, isolated onboard a luxury yacht in Athina Rachel Tsangari’s droll plunge into the male competitive spirit. When six well-to-do Greek men (a mix of brothers, in-laws, business partners and friends) grow bored with their vacation on the Aegean Sea, they concoct a wholly illogical and dead serious testosterone-fueled competition to determine who is “the best in general.” The premise, agreed upon in dramatic candlelight, is simple: not only shall each man devise challenges for the group to undertake, but in between these contests they also will be judged on any element another man deems important. Namely, everything. What ensues is a white-collar fight club series of contests and critiques ranging from petty, to hilarious, to outright cringe-inducing. Dental hygiene, coffee preference, sleeping posture, anything might win a competitor points or subtract from his total. And inevitably, virility will be called into question and, ahem, manhood … measured. Tsangari brilliantly mines the comedy underlying first-world egos and the unease of male friendship, while simultaneously maintaining the very serious tone of her characters. She sets the scene and lets the absurdity of the premise and the neuroses of the sparring men snowball naturally in this perfectly pitched satire. —Laura Henneman

Director Athina Rachel Tsangari

A strong case could be made to dub Athina Rachel Tsangari herself “the best in general.” Her first short film was nominated for a Student Academy Award; her first feature, The Slow Business of Going (2000), is part of MoMA’s permanent collection; and her second, Attenberg (SFIFF 2011), premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival. She designed the jaw-dropping projections of the 2004 opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens Olympics, produced films by Richard Linklater and Yorgos Lanthimos and has lectured at universities around the world. One suspects she sleeps very little, but that when she does, it is with perfect posture.

Film Details

Language Greek

Year 2015

Runtime 104

Country Greece

Director Athina Rachel Tsangari

Producer Maria Hatzakou, Athina Rachel Tsangari

Writer Efthimis Filippou, Athina Rachel Tsangari

Editor Matth Johnson, Yorgos Mavropsaridis

Cinematographer Christos Karamanis

Cast Yorgos Kendros, Panos Koronis, Vangelis Mourikis, Makis Papadimitriou