Ministerial Kudos.
Yesterday Iran's Abbas Kiarostami was honored with an Honorary Golden Alexander at the newly renamed Pavlos Zannas Cinema. He was presented this award by the Minister of Macedonia and Thrace, Yannis Magriotis. Kiarostami's latest film "The Wind Will Carry Us" was shown afterwards.

Spanish Diplomacy.
What Marisa Paredes likes about Thessaloniki is that the people she's encountered in the streets and at the movies, "look at you straight in the eyes" in a way that she is used to. While some actresses disappoint in real life, Ms. Paredes did completely the opposite, thrilling the room of journalists at her press conference yesterday with a presence that was somehow both larger-than-life and down-to-earth at once. Eyes flashing, wearing vibrant red and occasionally taking a moment to share her wonderful laugh, the actress was mostly quizzed on Pedro Almodovar and her craft. Paredes told us about watching Almodovar and Arturo Ripstein moved to the point of tears by their actors, about the enduring power of melodrama, and the fortune of being an actress in Europe (away from "cinema that shows everyone young and happy all the time"). Almodovar's great love of the theatre (he used to act on the stage, and Paredes is also a great theater actress) was one of the ties connecting the actress with the director; Almodovar often incorporated "short cuts" from her theater work in his pieces, with "All About My Mother" a clear display of his affection for the stage and the actors on it. "Never before has a director emphasized the female character -from the youngest to the oldest- so well… and shown their complexities," said Ms. Paredes of Almodovar. "Women," as Almodovar often says, "have more colors." An actress's challenge is to pour the emotion and substance into the basic outlines of characters, something Ms. Paredes always does¯in Technicolor. The actress related that sometimes the artistic supplies for these portraits came from her childhood. This was true in the case of the first part she ever played in a Pedro Almodovar film -a nun who takes hallucinogenic drugs. In shaping the part, she remembered Sister Mercedes, from the parochial school she had attended as a girl, a woman who Paredes didn't think took drugs, but "walked around as if she were in such a trance."

State-induced Disharmony.
The issue of Kurds in Turkey affected her personally, director Yesim Ustaoglou explained, noting that her film "Journey to the Sun" (which is about this topic), provoked considerable discussion in her country. "It was important for me to show the film in Greece," Ustaoglou underlined, due to the long, complicated history between the two countries. Her feelings on harmony between different ethnicities in the Balkans is: "if people aren't manipulated, they live together in peace."

Press Coverage.
It was disappointing for director Lefteris Haronitis, who worked on his latest documentary for fifteen years, to find it overlooked by the press. He didn't attribute this to any lack of popularity of documentaries in Greece (when shown on state TV, they often have up to 200,000 viewers). Then again, 140 films are a lot to see. Maybe next year, a "fail-safe" system should be established where Greek directors choose a critic of their choice who must see their film or be stripped of their credentials.

Charismatic figures.
3x3 Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi has always been fascinated by how certain human beings are born, place a mark on the world, and are remembered for centuries afterwards. This idea led her to make a film about Roman figure Simon Magus. Enyedi said her style of filmmaking is "hyper-realism." This style of storytelling tries to reflect what the director sees as a strong connection between reality and metaphysical connections.

Youthful Revolts.
The myths about acting were quickly eroded by the straight-speaking youthful part of the "Peppermint" cast in yesterday's press conference. "We got very tired, repeating scenes over and over," said one youthful member. "We didn't expect the film to turn out so well," said another. For his part, director Kostas Kapakas pointed out that he set out to capture not the reality of the past, but its memories. However, "some things -like parents being strict- are the same for kids in every era" said Kapakas, whose international competition film "Peppermint" played to a completely packed and entertained crowd on Thursday evening. The director, who saw securing distribution early on as essential to his project, is anticipating the release of his film in twelve theatres in Athens on December 10th.

The Cyprus Answer.
The great movie-theatre chain takeover, is the biggest risk Kostas Dimitriou identifies for Cypriot film. The director, whose "Road to Ithaka" is in this year's program, noted that appealing to as broad and young a public as possible is always in his mind while making films. His latest work captures a nightmarish time of conflict on the island in the late 1960s and 70s.

A Question of Character.
The hardest part of her leading role in "Felicia's Journey" for actress Elaine Cassidy "was getting to know Felicia." In preparing for the part, the actress tried to find someone she know who resembled the character, but could not. She turned instead to the book the film is based on, and to director Atom Egoyan for information. Getting to know Felicia -a process that was an amazing (if sometimes energy-depleting) experience for the actress- left her with an important lesson. While Cassidy doubts that she would have been able to undertake the difficult journey her character does in the film, she notes of her character: "Felicia takes the good out of the situation. It makes her stronger and she goes on." The film hasn't changed her personal life too much, noted Cassidy -except for "now I travel to a lot of places."

Balkan Chaos.
"If there was no atmosphere, there would have been no film," said Albanian director Gjergj Xhuvani of his "Funeral Business," a film displaying a state-of-war in his country's none-to-recent history. Xhuvani stitched together the atmospheric "clothing" of his film with a sparse black-and-white set, where human emotional turmoil and details stand out.

Quote/unquote:
"There hasn't been a turning of audiences towards films, but films towards audiences in Greece." Kostas Kapakas, director of "Peppermint."

INVITATION.
The 40th International Thessaloniki Film Festival invites you to the DEWAR'S Audience Awards Ceremony, as well as FIPRESCI, EUROPA CINEMAS, Greek Film Critics Association and Greek Union of Film and Television Technicians, on Sunday, November 21st, 1999, at 15:00, at Warehouse C.

Angelike Contis
First shot, #63, 20/11/1999