Alps (2011)
"Alpeis" (original title)

A group of people start a business where they impersonate the recently deceased in order to help their clients through the grieving process.

Director:

Giorgos Lanthimos

Writers:

Efthymis Filippou (screenplay), Giorgos Lanthimos (screenplay)

Stars:

Stavros Psyllakis, Aris Servetalis, Johnny Vekris

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Stavros Psyllakis
Aris Servetalis
Johnny Vekris
Ariane Labed
Aggeliki Papoulia
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Erifili Stefanidou

Storyline

A group of people start a business where they impersonate the recently deceased in order to help their clients through the grieving process.

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Taglines:

When the end is here the Alps are near.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

Greece

Language:

Greek English

Release Date:

27 October 2011 (Greece)

Also Known As:

Alps

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$2,628 (USA) (13 July 2012)

Gross:

$5,981 (USA) (27 July 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Haos Films, Hellenic Radio & Television (ERT), Faliro House Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

Alps

A KVIFF screening, from the young and talented Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos, a follow-up of DOGTOOTH (2009), which was a dark horse nominee of Oscar's BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR and I haven't watched yet. But Giorgos' eerie approach of scrutinizing modern-day's communicative malaise has its overt justification in ALPS.

Absurd, genuinely designed, full of fits of laughters about the mimicking set pieces, the film presents itself in a more comprehensive elaboration than I expected, although initially, it takes some time to figure out the real occupation and motivation behind the self-dubbed "Alps"group (maybe Everest could be a more befitting name since its the highest mountain on the earth and its irreplaceability should be more cogent than Alps as long as height is concerned).

But the wacky "impersonating the deceased"groundwork is not potent enough to sustain the film into a genius employment, since the demanding of this type of service and its viability to perform its presumed obligation (to console the next-of-kins' grief) is a moot question here, and eventually a win-win condition has to yield to the conceptual willfulness (in the film it is the identity misconception, a spontaneously unsurprising aftermath). But performance-wise, leading actress Aggeliki Papoulia is a natural treasure, rendering the eccentric antics much more personal dedication (which also includes an equivocal default of the relationship between her and her father, another Alps' case or not?), I put her among my top 10 list of BEST LEADING ACTRESS line-up of 2011.

ALPS is a patchwork piece, nonetheless, Giorgos' one-of-a-kind singularity alone could be singled out as one of the most intriguing and cutting-edge film artist to bring some mondo gratification to cinema nerds.