‘Dignity’: Thessaloniki Review

Dir: Dimitris Katsimiris. Greece. 2022. 75mins

The fraught question of ageing family members and how to cope with them continues to be a popular theme for filmmakers across the globe. Recent additions include Oscar-winner The Father and Polish-made Shreds (Strezpy), and now the ironically titled Dignity (Me axioprepeia) sees Dimitris Katsimiris come at the topic from a Greek perspective. Katsimiris has, along with a handful of short films, also written two plays, which may well be why he’s opted for a tense one-room chamber piece for his debut feature.

Katsimiris’ decision to ratchett things up so quickly from the start reduces the impact of tensions that would have benefited from a slower burn approach

Dignity had its world premiere at Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Film Forward strand, where it won the Audience Award, and while its universal theme and strong ensemble performances should help to attract further festival play, it might find it trickier to secure distribution outside its homeland due to the sheer number of films on the subject currently available.

The room where almost all of the action takes place belongs to Manolis (Thanasis Chalkias) and his wife Eleni (Ilektra Gennata), who have invited Manolis’ siblings to visit for his dad Dimitris’ (Charis Tsitsakis) 80th birthday. It’s almost immediately clear from the pair’s body language and general stress levels that this gathering is going to be about a lot more than party hats and cake. 

Dimitris has been positioned at a table, although it’s evident that a stroke has left him barely interacting with others beyond compliance with instructions and a beatific smile. His stillness becomes a point of contrast with everything else that’s happening, as Katsimiris quickly sets the emotional thermostat to high drama and makes it clear the only way is up.

First Manolis’ sister Sofia (Marouska Panagiotopoulou) arrives. She’s just back from Venice with her husband Giorgos (Yorgos Geronemakis), immediately marking her out as a social climber who has succeeded in scaling her way above the rest of the family. With her hair scraped back, a showy outfit that is noticeably colour co-ordinated with her husband’s and a bottle of “very expensive” wine, we don’t need to be told this is a rare flying visit. Their younger brother Alexis (Giannis Kotsifas) is late – something that the others have become used to. When he does arrive, it’s on a wave of energy so forced it feels like an electric storm. 

Non-Greek speakers will have to be on their toes to keep up with the subtitles as the dialogue rattles along at a gallop, with the restless handheld camerawork of Vasilis Stavropoulos (who also produces and edits) adding an additional queasy element that stops things feeling static. There’s a sort of strained bonhomie initially, an anecdote that starts off innocently enough but which takes a violent turn is still met with laughter and the remembrance of “such good times”. 

Soon, the cracks begin to show, not only caused by the real reason Manolo has thrown the party but also elements of the family’s shared history. The mostly low regard the siblings and their spouses have for one another also starts to break through the sweet veneer. Although this is an ensemble piece, Gennata’s performance stands out, a couple of half-smile exchanges with Dimitris carrying more poignancy than dialogue ever could and hinting at emotional nuance that doesn’t get much of a look in elsewhere.

Katsimiris’ decision to ratchett things up so quickly from the start reduces the impact of tensions that would have benefited from a slower burn approach. It also means he has to find somewhere even more melodramatic to go in order to bring things to a climax; a manouevre he manages but which feels less credible than what has gone before. Occasional cutaways suggest the presence of another, calmer and more optimistic place, which Dimitris’ mind now inhabits. Given what’s going on in his real world, perhaps that’s just as well.