Cyprus, 1882. Eleni, a bereaved painter reaches into the shadows to resurrect her lost children, but instead summons the ancient Kalikantzari of Cypriot lore. She must now confront the storm of her grief and anger, and lift the curse.
Grimmfest says: A slow-burning, suffocatingly atmospheric historical horror, drawing heavily on local folk traditions, culture, music, and mythology, this plays like a classical Greek Tragedy transposed to 19th Century British Colonnial-occupied Cyprus. Grieving, bereaved mother Eleni attempts to resurrect her dead children through art and ritual and instead summons the malevolent, havoc-wreaking goblin-like Kalikanzari, and then, far worse, the monstrous Lamia, transformed into a child-devouring monster after the goddess Hera stole her own children. Already reviled in her community as a witch, and with the British Military investigating, Eleni struggles to balance her desire for revenge and retribution with her sense of moral responsibility for what she has done. Referencing – only to challenge and subvert – Euripedes’ tragedy of MEDEA (Pasolini’s famous film of which is surely a visual touchstone here), this is a viscerally powerful, and ultimately profoundly moving and unexpectedly redemptive meditation on motherhood, creativity, and the bitter legacies of prejudice and abuse. Margarita Zachariou is utterly mesmerising in the lead, with an almost operatic grandeur and emotional range, and Danai Katsameni is both terrifying and oddly pitiful as the demonic Lamia (and, as evidenced by the film’s astonishing soundtrack, has vocal skills to rival Diamanda Galas). It’s a film that takes a while to fully show its hand, but the ominous atmosphere will hook you from the start, like the greatest classical tragedies; that escalating sense of something very bad coming, some terrible fate, ordained by the Gods. And those Greek Gods were a vengeful, vindictive bunch.