The Photographers (Οι Φωτογράφοι)

Nikos Koundouros in his film takes the issue of individual moral responsibility a step further by considering the individual’s responsibility to themselves. Koundouros has created a political allegory using Sophokles’ tragedy Antigone as the basis. The director transplants the ancient story to a generic Muslim country taken over by a mad fundamentalist, the Kreon character of the play. A group of journalists from the West arrive to record the events for the rest of the world to see. The only one in the group moved by the crucifixion of several accused traitors and the growing number of corpses is the woman photographer, Sarah. These emotions and her curiosity bring her closer to the chorus of women grieving for their men and, eventually, to a young woman who tries to take her brother down from his cross so that she can bury him (echoing Antigone’s attempts in the play). It also leads her to meet an independent Greek photographer who, unlike the other media people, takes risks to record what he believes to be the “truth” and does not allow himself to buy into the dictator’s games

Cast:
Michalis Iatropoulos (Jesu El Din)
Katerina Pavlaki (Sahar Bloomendahl)
Manos Vakousis (Aldo Karajan)

Director: Nikos Koundouros
Writer: Nikos Koundouros, Nikos Konstadaras
Runtime: 110 min
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Language: English, Greek
Production Year: 1998