The Enemy Within (2013)
Revenge is a recurrent theme in thrillers, usually dispensed by action heroes with a well-stocked arsenal. But in Yorgos Tsemberopoulos’s nuanced moral maze the protagonist is the bookish Kostas (Manolis Mavromatakis), a suburban florist well versed in social and political theory, which he discusses at length with a local publican. But when his home is invaded by masked hoodlums, who bind his family and rape his teenage daughter, our everyman hero finds his intellectual stance untenable. Encouraged by his paranoid, militarist neighbour, Kostas decides to take the law into his own hands, and in doing so begins to understand – for the first time – the world he has been living in. The vigilante movie is a well-explored genre too, but Tsemberopoulos gives it a whole new urgency, subverting the cliched right-wing fantasy structure and seeing it through the eyes of a man who comes to find his real self while trying to live up to the (imagined) expectations of others. (Source: LFF programme)
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Simply Perfect
Excellent but underrated film
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
I haven't seen many Greek movies but I've been impressed with a couple of recent movies from the cradle of civilization, including The Enemy Within. This is an action movie as well as a family drama. A fairly well-to-do family in modern Athens is victimized by a gang of criminals and the father's response to the crime is the great dilemma of the movie. The acting is very good and the musical score is exceptional and fitting for the film. The movie is a morality play like the dramas of the ancient Greeks. I enjoy foreign films because it's like traveling on the cheap, and this film gives us a look at downtown Athens, as well as some beautiful country in the Greek mountains. Good movie and rightfully received some awards.
Few films have managed to treat a controversial social issue and let prevail ethic at the same time as this, as this largely neglected film has done. Touching the problem of immigrants in 21st century Greece (right before the oncoming giant flew of refugees that marked our country and our hearts in 2015), their unstable position in the society, the insecurity they may cause n some parts of the population and different reactions, it goes far beyond reaching to biblical ethic questions. Should we take revenge the old Testament style, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? And if so, what are the consequences? Can one man stand on foot on his own after that? And what about the ones he loves, is he able to protect them?The way out is forgiveness. It comes in a stunning way and liberates the hero, while dazzling him at the same time.The enemy within is beaten by mutual forgiveness, compassion and solidarity towards the real enemy. The rest to be seen...