Four premieres set foot in 2024, as the success of several films of the previous weeks does not leave much room for new searches.

Stand out teenage fantasy thriller “Falcon Lake” and the -truly handmade- adult animation “The Villagers” from Poland.

The program also includes the first horror film of the year, “Haunted Waters” and the return of Digimon with the familiar animation, of Japanese origin, “Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning”.

Falcon Lake

(Falcon Lake) 2022 Canadian-produced fantasy-thriller, directed by Charlotte LeBon, starring Sarah Montpetit, Joseph Engel, Monia Chokri, Eleanor Loiselle, Anthony Therrien and others.

Promising directorial debut of French-Canadian Charlotte Lebon, former model and actress – she also starred in ‘Yves Saint Laurent’. A teenage coming-of-age thriller with a personal style, a poetic mood and a tender look, focusing on young souls, the first heartbeats and the disappointments of love.

But also a nostalgic reminder of adolescence, which over the years we have forgotten what carelessness is, the ignorance of danger, but also of first love that could lead us to heaven or even hell. And of course the big and wild waves of sexuality, which hide the anxiety of the unknown, the insecurity of approach, the boldness, the joy of sharing pure feelings, but also the magic of fantasy.

The script, written by LeBon, has 14-year-old Bastian and his family spending the summer in Falcon Lake, Quebec, at a close friend’s house. There Bastian will meet the bold and outgoing Chloe, who will charm him from the first moment, even though she seems interested in the older boys who besiege her. Little by little the children will become close and Bastian will manage to enter her world, which revolves around Lake Falcon, which the girl believes harbors a ghost. Bastian, in order to prove that he can enter her heart and grow, will agree to go through a series of tests, to overcome his fear of water, since he does not know how to swim and once almost drowned.

Taking advantage of the idyllic and mysterious landscape of Falcon Lake, as well as its virgin and wild beauty, Lebon will skilfully combine teenage exuberance, the summer humidity of feelings with the metaphysical, which sometimes seems scary.

One of the film’s strengths, Christoph Brundle’s photographywill be integrated into Lebon’s narrative framework, as it highlights the ambiguities and interiority of the characters, but also of the lake as a symbol of entry into the unknown, the beautiful and the dark, the transition from adolescence to early adulthood, to the sweet yet wild adventure of life, in the melancholic call of a destination that seems unknown, but always has an end.

The camera mainly follows Bastian’s gaze, which also conveys the perspective of the director, the enigma of life, but also the mysteries hidden by the lake, the entrance to adulthood. The film has the requisite vibe, reminiscent of 80’s teen thrillers, but nuanced enough as LeBon shows herself to be thoughtful enough and proves that she possesses the distinctive eye of an auteur.

Nice performances from the young couple, who give energy and passion to a film that sometimes loses its balance, but manages to move and hold its interest until the end, which was recognized at many festivals, as well as at Cannes where it premiere.

In short… The shy 13-year-old Bastian and his family are at a friend’s house, on the idyllic lake of Quebec. There the young man will meet 16-year-old Chloe and with her the local legends, who want a ghost to haunt the area. The two children will soon become very close, and their contact will change their lives forever.

The villagers

(The Peasants) 2023 Polish-produced animated period romantic drama directed by Hugh Welcman and Dorota Kobiela, starring Robert Kulaszczyk, Kamila Urchendowska and others.

Anyone who remembers – probably will hardly have forgotten – the first film of the directing couple from Poland, “Loving Vincent”, with its unique technical achievement of tens of thousands of hand-painted images that replaced the frames of the motion picture camera, can confidently trust their new venture and enjoy a powerful period love drama. A film, which turns thousands of oil paintings into moving images. A spectacle, for which even more oil paintings were needed, close to 80,000, to convey the charming story of a forbidden love in difficult times, at the beginning of the 20th century. A story based on the book of the same name by Władysław Raymond, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1924. A novel, set in the Polish countryside at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries, which describes the love story of a young man and a young woman, but also of the inhabitants of a village, divided in time into the four seasons of the year.

The story takes us to a remote village in the Polish countryside a beautiful young woman falls in love with a handsome farmer, but he is married. The situation will worsen when the girl is forced by her family to marry the rich and crazy widower father of her great love.

More than 100 painters gave life to their sketches, after the shoot began with regular actors giving way to the drawings, while the aesthetically gorgeous film inspired by the wave of Polish painters who appeared before the Impressionists, emphasizing realism. After all, one of the achievements of this adult animation is its realistic performance, managing to make the viewer forget that he is seeing drawings, to convince him that he is watching soulful characters, real situations, love passions.

However, apart from the technical achievements of the film, there is also the overall result, which probably this time is relatively uneven, on the one hand, with the approach of a love drama as a soap opera, removing part of the glamor of the production and on the other hand, from the forced and rhythmic repetition of images and motifs leading in part to a monotony. How much more so when this repetition has also happened in the first film – but then it was something admittedly unprecedented for the viewer.

In conclusion, the film, which does not lose its magic and of course its aesthetic value, can be seen with pleasure, while especially the “newbies” will most likely be impressed and have something to say about their experience.

In a few words… A story of forbidden love passion in a small rural community in Poland, at the beginning of the 20th century, through which unfolds the primordial bond of man with nature and the changing of the seasons, the lost traditions of a world receding on the horizon, the subcutaneous social transformations, the almost allegorical timelessness that characterizes class and family conflicts.

Movies still showing:

Haunted Waters

(Night Swim) 2024’s first American horror film of the year comes from a decade-old 5-minute short film by newcomer Bryce McGuire, who aspires to make his own hit in the popular genre. The American director takes advantage of the water element and influenced by films such as “The Spirit of Evil”, “The Terror of the Black Lake”, “Jaws of the Shark” and “The Abyss”, offers the necessary chills and to a point avoids clichés and the sloppiness of a “predator”, as is common in cinematic horror in recent years.

A former baseball star retired from the sport early due to a degenerative disease moves into a new home with his wife and two children, hoping he can return to the playing fields by doing physical therapy in the water. With him his children enjoy the pool until a macabre secret hiding the house unleashes a malevolent force that plunges the whole family into terror.

The low-budget film has its interest to a point, but also some impressive scenes in the water, while the performances of Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amelie Heffery and Kevin Warren are not indifferent.

Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning

A 2023 Japanese animated children’s film by the experienced Tomohisa Taguchi. The second generation of Digimon is back in action, after 22 years and especially in Greece, when it was shown on TV. Social concerns in a child-adolescent package, with the familiar Japanese aesthetic sketches.

The secret behind the Chosen Children is revealed. It is the year 2012, ten years after the adventures between Odaiba and the Digital World. Although they have gone their separate ways, Davis and the other Chosen Children, as well as their fellow Digimon are still bound by the same unbreakable bonds. One day, a giant Digi-Egg suddenly appears in the sky above Tokyo Tower, sending a message to the world. The chosen children must be mobilized, but this time as adults.

The film is shown dubbed in Greek.