Akadimia Platonos

It is quite some time ago, since we last presented you a movie in our category culture. But today that is going to change, because I have a new Greek movie for you, called Akadimia Platonos.

The Greek movie title is "Ακαδημία Πλάτωνος”, which is the quarter of Athens, in which the plot takes part. The movie, produced by Filippos Tsitos in 2009, was filmed in Germany and Greece and is originally in Greek and Albanian language. You can also watch it in German. They first planed to title the movie with „Δεν θα γίνεις Έλληνας ποτέ, Αλβανέ ...” (Den tha ginis ellinas pote, Alvane), in English „You will never be a Greek, Albanian ...“, because the movie is about the Albanian people in Greece.

Now more about the movie's plot. The movie takes place in a small and calm intersection in the quarter Akadimia Platonos, which has a lot of houses with small apartment in which mostly foreign people life and which have passed their best time. The main character is the shop owner Stavros. He and his friends are always sitting in front of the shop and chat. Then Albanian builders start to build a monument for the „intercultural solidarity“. Stavros and his xenophobic friends don't like that, and talk bad about it, as well as about the Chinese people renovation a store on the other side of the street. They also enjoy that their dog „Patriot“ always barks at the Albanian people.
Then suddenly, the demented mother of Stavros recognizes in an Albanian man her lost son. His mother also suddenly starts to speak Albanian fluently and the dog Patriot also starts barking at Stavros. He is very irritated and starts to question how much he is Albanian himself.

The movie as a lot of good reviews. It is a movie you can enjoy in different aspects. One first sight it is an easy comedy, but looking deeper the movie tries to draw attention to a mostly unmentioned topic and shows the prejudices and difficulties in the Greek society.