Apples
Amidst a world-wide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia, middle-aged Aris finds himself enrolled in a recovery programme designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities. Prescribed daily tasks on cassette tapes so he can create new memories and document them on camera, Aris slides back into ordinary life, meeting Anna, a woman who is also in recovery.
Through images deadpan, strange and surreal, Greek writer-director Christos Nikou posits a beguiling reflection on memory, identity, and loss, exploring how a society might handle an irreversible epidemic through one man’s story of self-discovery. Are we the sum of the images we compile and display of ourselves, or are we something richer, and deeper?
Film Credits
Original Title: Mila
Original Language: Greek
Production Countries: Greece, Poland, Slovenia
Duration: 90 min.
Directed by: Christos Nikou
Written by: Christos Nikou, Stavros Raptis
Produced by: Iraklis Mavroedis, Nikos Smpiliris, Angelos Venetis, Aris Dagios, Christos Nikou, Mariusz Włodarski, Ales Pavlin, Andrej Stritof
Cinematography: Bartosz Swiniarski
Editing: Giorgos Zafeiris
Production Design: Efi Birba
Costume Design: Dmitra Liakoura
Make-Up: Kiriaki Melidou
Sound: Leandros Ntounis
Original Score: The Boy
Visual Effects: Radosław Rekita
Cast: Aris Servetalis, Sofia Georgovasili
About the director
Christos Nikou was born in Athens in 1984.
His short film KM participated in over 40 international film festivals, including Rotterdam, Stockholm, Palm Springs, Sydney, Tallinn Black Nights, Interfilm Berlin, and winning the Best Short Film Price at the Motovun Film Festival of Croatia
For the past ten years, he has worked as an assistant director on the feature films DOGTOOTH (Yorgos Lanthimos) and BEFORE MIDNIGHT (Richard Linklater). After his short KM (2012), APPLES is his full-length feature debut and opened the section Orizzonti at 2020s Venice Film Festival.