GUEST OF HONOR!

Greece, this year’s guest of honor at the MIFC, is home to a treasure trove of cinema gems, and Lumière is featuring a program of seven Greek films, including the masterpiece Bitter Bread!

Six years after the end of WWII, a working-class family in Athens struggles to make ends meet. Released in 1951, Bitter Bread is regarded as the first Greek film of neorealism. The story revolves around the contrasting characters of the mother, father and their three sons. Although they all share the common experience of hardship, each reacts in a way that reveals their individual personalities. The director, Grigoris Grigoriou draws on the often “bitter grace” of reality, particularly the city’s bleak landscapes, to inject a lyrical element of political and historical drama. The ghosts of the Nazi deportations (Bitter Bread is the first Greek film to address the persecution and death of the Jews), the physical scars left by the war and the working conditions of the laborers… are all powerfully portrayed. Against this backdrop, the innocence of childhood and the desire for new hope provide a timid, if sincere, counterpoint. Grigoriou focuses viscerally on the tiniest detail of emotions of his characters, careful to avoid the trap of wishful idealism. He seeks to show that humanity must always be stronger than the shackles of poverty, even if it presents a daunting quest.

Virginie Apiou