ISSN: 2241-6692

BLOG - Dionysian

Shot and set in the 1980s, Giorgos Panousopoulos’s Mania (1985) is perhaps not one of this period’s (or this director’s) most characteristic films – not even within the framework of New Greek Cinema. Yet, it constitutes a fascinating piece of filmmaking, which works on a number of levels, and it seems to be slowly regaining the recognition it deserves. The film tells the tale of an incident in the life of Zoe Spyropoulou (played by Alessandra Vanzi and voiced by Aspasia Kralli) on the day of the Ascension. Zoe is a computer expert working for the multinational corporation IBS. Described by one of her superiors as being “monstrously rational”i, early on in the film she is notified that she will be relocated to Chicago for a period of 90 days, during which she will be given further training, as she is believed to be among the company’s most gifted employees in her field of expertise. Returning home, she consents to her daughter’s pleas for a visit to the National Garden, which is situated in the very centre of Athens. There, while studying the print off of a computer-generated psychological profile that has been handed to her by the company, Zoe unintentionally overhears a man, who appears to be the Garden’s janitor (Aris Retsos), talking to a group of visiting children (Zoe’s daughter included) about a supposed hole that leads to a tunnel running under the whole city, and about a fairy who can walk through the hole and into the Garden’s premises at any given time. ... More