‘Medium’: Sarajevo Review

Dir/scr: Christina Ioakeimidi. Greece/Bulgaria. 2023. 100mins

True to its title, Greek coming-of-age drama Medium is neither a large nor a small film, rather something steadily in-between. Christina Ioakemidi’s (Harisima) adaptation of an obscure 1987 novel is a character study which intimately observes 16-year-old Eleftheria (Angeliki Beveratou) over several weeks of an oppressive Athens heatwave, adhering quite closely to the well-established international art-cinema template for tales of first love. The casting of the central role is absolutely crucial to the film’s success, and newcomer Beveratou pulls her weight with engaging aplomb – ensuring festivals and platforms showcasing emerging talent should be interested in this Greek-Bulgarian co-production.

Carries a persuasive tang of authenticity in its presentation of youthful, feminine experience

The film’s title hints at supernatural elements relating to Eleftheria’s apparent ESP powers. Still grieving the sudden death of her mother some five years before, she has travelled from her home in the north of the country to help out during the last few weeks of her her sister Dimitra’s (Natasa Exintaveloni) pregnancy.  Eleftheria becomes first intrigued then smitten by her twentysomething neighbour Angelos (Nikos Zeginoglou from Sofia Exarchou’s 2016 Park), a junior doctor.

A relationship would not actually be against any law here, as the age of consent in Greece is 15. But pursuing Angelos is nevertheless an evidently risky course of action for such an immature and inexperienced girl. And there’s also the fact that Angelos is probably gay (or at the very least bisexual), clues to this being glaringly obvious to everyone apart from the besotted Eleftheria.

The central irony of Medium, then, is that Eleftheria is more receptive to spirit-world energies than she is perceptive about real-world practicalities. She seeks to channel the former after a chance contact with middle-aged professional psychic Anna, played by Martha Fritzilla as a warmly wise life-force. But the film seems to lose interest in its offbeat metaphysical aspects in favour of more conventional romantic interludes featuring Eleftheria and Angelos sharing wordless scooter-rides at dusk, and so on. Here and there are small, unusual details which perhaps hint at the late-80s vintage of the source material: Eleftheria is a dedicated amateur breakdancer; she accidentally damages her smartphone quite early in the running-time, so must (implausibly) rely on payphones thereafter.

Ted Regklis’s score deploys sparse piano melodies, tinkling sadly away in a manner familiar from countless similar films and TV series. But the film’s strengths lie in the specifics that make Medium stand out from the pack, such as the evoking of the the stifling heat of mid-summer Athens, and via the more idiosyncratic elements of Eleftheria’s lively, headstrong personality.

It’s surprising to learn that the novel in question was written by a man, and one of relatively mature years: Giorgos Symbardes was 42 when Medium (aka Psychic) was published. Less than 200 pages long, it was his first book; he went on to enjoy significant acclaim in Greece though he remains little-known elsewhere. While remaining faithful to the text’s basic outlines, Ioakeimidi’s version carries a persuasive tang of authenticity in its presentation of youthful, feminine experience.