Adaptation Film Festival | Athens | February 2-8
The newly launched Adaptation Film Festival, organized by MovieReel and the City of Athens, features films adapted from literature as well as discussions on the work of specific artists, to the Mikrokosmos movie theater from February 2-8. The event starts on Thursday, February 2, at 7.30 p.m., with a discussion on the work of Cuban novelist Pedro Juan Gutierrez, whose “El Rey de la Habana” had been adapted for the big screen by award-winning Spanish filmmaker August Villaronga, being screened at 9.30 p.m. The official launch will be followed by a party at Tiki Bar (15 Falirou, Makriyianni), with Michalis Delta on the decks. Admission to the party is free of charge, while Mikrocosmos ticket-holders will receive two Fischer beers for the price of one. On Friday, February 3, the program begins at 6 p.m. with “Boomerang,” by France’s Francois Favrat, based on the bestseller “A Secret Kept” by Tatiana De Rosnay. It is followed by “The Daughter” at 8 p.m. by Australia’s Simon Stone, loosely based on Henrik Ibsen’s “Wild Duck” and, at 9.45 p.m., by “The Treatment,” a Belgian thriller directed by Hans Herbots based on the book of the same title by Mo Hader. On Saturday, February 4, the 5.15 p.m. discussion will be on the work of the late Greek filmmaker Nikos Nikolaidis, which will be followed by a screening of his 1987 “Morning Patrol,” inspired by great crime writers like Raymond Chandler and Philip K. Dick, at 6 p.m. The next film, at 8.15 p.m., is “The Orphans of Eldorado” by Brazil’s Guilherme Coelho, inspired by Amazonian writer Milton Hatoum and shot in that region. “El Rey de la Habana” will be screened again, at 10 p.m., followed at 12.15 a.m. by the animated sci-fi drama “Psiconautas, the Forgotten Children” by Alberto Vazquez and Pedro Rivero. The program on Sunday, February 5, starts with a seminar on free-writing at 4.30 p.m., followed by a special screening at 6 p.m. allowing two people in with one ticket, of Percy Adlon’s “Celeste” on the life of Marcel Proust. At 8 p.m., “The Storm Inside” by France’s Fabrice Camoin is based on Maguerite Duras’s “Ten-Thirty on a Summer Night,” while the 9.45 p.m. screening is of Fatih Akin’s latest film, “Tschick” is based on the best-seller by Wolfgang Herrndorf. The evening ends with another party at Tiki Bar, featuring music from films. On Monday, February 6, “Oedipo Alcalde” is an adaptation from 1996 by Jorge Ali Triana of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s modern take on Sophocles’ tragedy, and will be screened at 6 p.m. This will be followed at 8 p.m. by German romance drama “Agnes,” directed by Johannes Schmid and based on the novel by Peter Stamm, and at 10 p.m. by “Sweet Bean,” a Japanese drama by Naomi Kawase that opened the 2015 Cannes Un Certain Regard section. Tuesday, February 7, will start with a classic, the 1959 “Hiroshima mon amour” by Alain Resnais, starting at 6 p.m. It will be followed at 8 p.m. by “Fragmentos de Amor,” directed by Fernando Vallejo and based on the novel of the same title by Hector Abad Faciolince. American director and playwright Stephen Belber’s “Match” is that last screening, at 10 p.m., and is a drama based on his own play and starring Patrick Stewart. The last day of the Festival, Wednesday, February 8, starts at 6 p.m. with another screening of “El Rey de la Habana,” followed at 8.15 p.m. by “Original Bliss” by Germany’s Sven Taddicken, based on the short-story collection by esteemed Scottish writer A.L. Kennedy. The final film of the festival is Israeli Erez Pery’s “The Interrogation,” based on the autobiography of Auschwitz founder and commander Rudolf Hoess. Tickets for all screenings cost 6 euros and will be on sale from January 16.
Mikrokosmos, 106 Syngrou, tel 210.921.5305, www.adaptationfestival.gr
