Brides
Νύφες
Nyfes
“It’s not a punishment to remember someone you love. The punishment is to forget”
Set in the turbulent social and political climate of 1922, Brides tells the story of 700 young women, some of them teenagers, from Greece, Russia, Turkey and Armenia, who were loaded on a ship heading for New York. They were proxy brides carrying a wedding gown and a photograph of their future husbands. Their marriages had been arranged either through family connections, or in a business-like manner by agents.
The story centres on Niki Doukas and Norman Harris. Niki is a young woman from the island of Samothrace, being sent to Chicago to marry a tailor. Norman is an American war photographer returning to the U.S. from Asia Minor with his career and marriage in tatters. Niki is in fact a substitute proxy bride, replacing her sister who could not bear living away from her homeland and returned to Greece in ill health. Family honour demanded that the obligation to provide Prodromos, the Chicago tailor, with a bride, be fulfilled.
Norman, who is travelling in first class, is fascinated by the brides and wants to photograph all of them. He encounters Niki several times, impressed by her talent as a seamstress and her firebrand personality. Her talent with a sewing machine lands her a job repairing the costumes of some ladies in first class. The handsome Irish-American photographer and the beautiful proxy bride begin falling in love.
The film tells a parallel story of Haro, who although in love with a soldier, is being sent into an arranged marriage. Her father caught her trying to escape, flogged her and shipped her out. Whereas Niki sees and accepts her duty to go to her husband with steadfastness, Haro is full of doubts and in the end is unable to complete the journey.
Not all the women are on their way to their husbands. The Russian agent is doing a lot more than arranging marriages, he is selling women into the sex trade.
Pantelis Voulgaris presents us with a film that is both moving and a paean to the courage, integrity and moral fibre of the proxy brides. These are not 700 tragedies – they are 700 facts of life, of women who accepted their fate as it was handed to them and lived according to a moral code that most of us find incomprehensible.
Adapted from a piece by James Karas, The Greek Press, Toronto
Director: Pantelis Voulgaris | Rating: R 18+ | 2004 | Drama | 122 minutes | Greek, Russian, English dialogue with English subtitles
Director's Bio - Pantelis Voulgaris
Pantelis Voulgaris was born in Athens in 1940 and studied at the Stavrakou Film School. He worked initially as an assistant director and made his first short in 1965. Since then, his films have won international acclaim and numerous awards, establishing his reputation as one of the foremost Greek film directors of his generation. He has also directed several documentaries for Greek television and the hour-long documentary on the poet Yannis Ritsos for German Television. He has also directed for the stage. In 1995 Pantelis Voulgaris was honoured by the Museum of Modern Art in New York with a mid-career retrospective.
PRINCIPAL CAST Damian Lewis (Norman Harris),
Victoria Haralambidou (Niki Douka),
Andrea Ferreol (Emine),
Evi Saoulidou (Haro) ,
Steven Berkoff (Karaboulat),
Dimitris Katalifos (Captain Marinos),
Irini Iglessi (Miss Kardaki),
Apostolos Totsikas (Nicholas),
Evelina Papoulia (Marion). AWARDS 45th Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2004 1965 The Thief (Short Film) 45th Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2004
First Prize for fiction film
Best Leading Actress award
Best Supporting Actress award
Best Cinematography award
Best Set Design award
Best Music award
Best Sound award
Best Editing award
Best Costumes award
Best Makeup award
DIRECTOR's – PREVIOUS FILMS
1966 Jimmy the Tiger (Short Film)
International Film Festival of Thessaloniki:
Best Short Film Award
Best Actor Award
Critics Awards
1969 The Dance of the Goats (Documentary)
Grand Prix Contemporary Film Festival, Athens
1972 The Engagement of Anna
International Film Festival of Thessaloniki FIPRESCI,
Best Film Award
Best Director Award
Berlin Film Festival :
Otto-Dibelius Award
OCIC Award
1973 The Great Love Songs
1976 Happy Day
International Film Festival of Thessaloniki
Best Film Award
Best Director Award
1980 Eleftherios Venizelos
1985 Stone Years (Documentary)
International Film Festival of Thessaloniki
Best Film Award
Best Director Award
Venice Film Festival:
Best Actress Award
Special Nomination for Best Actress
Valencia Film Festival:
Best Actress Award
Best Music Award
1988 The Striker with the No.9
Silver Knight Award – Moscow Film Festival
1991 Quiet Dais in August
Mention by the Berlin Film Festival's International Protestant Film Jury
Selected to represent Greece as Best Film for the European Film Awards
1995 Acropole
1996 Cairo International Film Festival – Best Director Award
Valencia Film Festival – Best Music Award
1998 It’s a Long Road
Hellenic Ministry of Culture 1998 National Film Awards
Best Actor (Giorgos Armenis)
Best Make-Up
2004 Brides
45th Thessaloniki International Film Festival – 2004:
First Prize for Fiction Film,
Best Leading Actress Award
Best Supporting Actress Award
Best Cinematography Award
Best Set Design Award
Best Music Award
Best Sound Award
Best Editing Award
Best Costumes Award
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL SCREENINGS
29th Toronto International Film Festival 2004 (Official Selection)
27th Moscow International Film Festival 2005 (Competition Section)
40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2005 (Horizons Program)
Reviews
Review by Maria Katsounaki, “An awkward life journey for 700 immigrant ‘Brides’, Kathimerini Newspaper (English Edition), October 27, 2004.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/civ_&xml/&aspKath/civ.asp?fdate=27/10/2004
Article by Panayiotis Panagopoulos, “Pantelis Voulgaris’s new film looks on migrant brides”, Kathimerini (English Edition), June 11, 2003.
http://info.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_civ_20220_11/06/2003_920686
Article by Dana Harris, “Capa walks down the aisle with Brides”, Variety.com, May 18, 2003 http://print.google.com/print/doc?articleid=LcVjJLJlWFH
Review by James Karas, “Brides: A cinematic gem premieres at Film Festival”, The Greek Press, Toronto Canada, September 27, 2004.
http://greekpress.ca/index.taf?_function=article&type=archive&issue=
20040927&articlename=kallitexnika
Review by Dennis Harvey, Variety.com, September 17, 2004. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117924933?categoryid=31&cs=1
Review by Eleni Andreadou, Cine.gr, 19 September, 2004.
http://www.cine.gr/film.asp?id=704734&page=4
Article by Julie Mynatt, titled: Her comes the ‘Brides’, Screen Magazine, 3 April, 2005 http://www.screenmag.tv/shorttake.aspx?stid=484
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Canberra Session Times:
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“Brides an important and special project to me," Scorsese said. "I am a true admirer of Pantelis' films and respect his vision and unique style of storytelling. The thought of his work reaching an American and international audience is extremely exciting."
- Martin Scorsese |
