“Find Me Falling” (Μπρος Γκρεμός) debuted on Netflix Australia this week as the first Cypriot feature film on the platform. South African-born Stelana Kliris wrote, directed, and co-produced the film.
Kliris who lived and worked in London, and Athens, for the television and film industry returned to Cyprus in the mid-2000s, where she made her first feature film, the hit “Committed.”
In “Find Me Falling”, crooner and actor Harry Connick Jr. plays an ageing rock star, John Allman, who, after a failed comeback album, escapes to Cyprus to lick his wounds. He lives in a remote cliffside house shack.
The cliff, as the local Cypriot cop tells Allman, is a “suicide hotspot” after Allman witnesses a young man fall to his death. Allman becomes the de facto and resentful suicide watch.
Allman’s problems are facile – fame, ego, desire for adulation, wrapped in unfulfilled desires. There is absurdity when Allman tries to build a fence across his part of the cliff’s edge. It’s rickety, unstable and ineffective. He can’t fence, own, or defy the ancient land he is on.
We find out that there is another motivation for Allman’s “return” to Cyprus. Love and passion for Sia played by the magnetic Agni Scott. A locked-in memory of a time before he became a rock star – and much more.
Allman like the fence, is ineffective, but love may make him whole again. The film makes non-didactic calls for a focus on mental health and how we can all help others in our circle.
Kliris has created a charming, and funny film with made statements about our society, home, and Eros in a non-didactic way.
Stelana Kliris’s personal journey resembles Allman’s, who left New York and the accoutrements of fame for Cyprus.
I met Kliris in Athens for a café before its release.
“Find Me Falling was shot entirely in Cyprus, between Peyia and Nicosia, the Cypriot production company Green Olive Films ran the production,” Kliris said.
The local Cypriot film industry was fully engaged.
“Most of the crew and cast were from Cyprus; over 150 people worked on the production.
“It is definitive proof that Cyprus can produce world-class movies for a global audience and that people want to hear our stories,” Kliris said.
The Emmy and Grammy-award-winning Harry Connick, Jr., leads a credible cast, including Agni Scott and Ali Fumiko Whitney – who shines as the young, funny, sarcastic Gen Z singer. There is Tony Demetriou – Lea Maleni, Aggeliki Filippidou, Athina Roditou and Clarence Smith.
The rom-com is full of unexpected twists, and it is made better by the ensemble work of Cypriot actors. It is also framed by stunning cinematography. The script sometimes wavers between crisp authenticity and clichés – yet, it satisfies; it comes together.
Harry Connick Jr. sings in Greek, and his coffee-smooth voice and great phrasing work well with traditional Cypriot cantatas. Connick is compelling as a mid-50s Gen X Rockstar.
“Find Me Falling, is an enjoyable siren’s call for Cyprus. It is impossible to watch it and not want to jump on a plane to visit Cyprus and start a new life.
The Cyprus-U.S. co-production between Jupiter Peak Productions (USA) and Kliris’s Meraki Films (Cyprus) also had support from the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture and the Cyprus Film Commission. It is an excellent signpost of how its small film industry can punch well above its weight.
It is a delightful film and an antidote to the tired “My Big Fat Greek…” franchise. The use of the Cypriot dialect and the weaving of English present a contemporary characterisation of the nation, avoiding Hollywood tropes.
Stelana Kliris’s upcoming projects include the feature film, “Apart from Her”, and the series “Unexpected.”
Trailer:
“Find Me Falling” is out now on Netflix worldwide and at Cypriot cinemas
Billy Cotsis is the author of The Aegean Seven: Take Back The Stolen Marbles
