Having returned to Greece from Paris and having made his directorial debut a few years earlier with The Colors of Iris, Nikos Panayotopoulos leaves his mark on the domestic film scene with his second film—perhaps the most defining work of his filmography.
A wealthy bourgeois man and his three sons reside in a grand country mansion, where they gradually succumb to idleness, free from the necessity of work. Stillness becomes contagious, spreading through their world until they resemble the living dead. They awaken from their lethargy only for food and sex. One son attempts to escape with the maid, but before he can get far, exhaustion overtakes him, and he falls asleep on the spot. Another son sleeps incessantly. Is there an escape from the pleasure of laziness?
In this world of mentally aged, indolent men, only the female servant embodies movement and willpower. In this early work that has flourished over time, Panayotopoulos crafts a dark satire, observing the bourgeoisie with a mix of pity and critique, exposing their inertia and decline.
A descendant of Buñuel and a forerunner of a new wave of Greek cinema, the film is allegorical without being trapped in its era, maintaining both its surreal power and its lighthearted touch—qualities that have made it a timeless cult classic.
Thessaloniki Film Festival
The film won the Golden Leopard at the 1978 Locarno International Film Festival.