The 30th Greek Film Festival is about to light up screens across Australia, marking three decades of cinematic storytelling that bridges Greece and the diaspora. From 14 to 26 October, audiences will immerse themselves in 13 days of striking performances, powerful filmmaking, and special events celebrating the films and artists who’ve shaped the festival’s journey.
The world premiere of The Kink at Melbourne’s iconic Astor Theatre, will mark this year’s grand finale on 26 October, with writer-producer Alkinos Tsilimidos, director David Field, and the cast in attendance.
The film reunites two long-time collaborators whose creative partnership stretches back to acclaimed works such as Everynight…Everynight, Silent Partner and Tom White. This time, they’ve turned their attention to a darkly comic tale of crime, love, and suburban absurdity.
The plot
The Kink is a dark comedy about a washed-up, sex-obsessed conman (Mirko Grillini) who is blackmailed by his lawyer’s fiercely protective mother (Sally-Anne Upton) into doing the unthinkable. With just two days to pull it off, he ropes in his lover’s unsuspecting husband for help. As the inexperienced duo attempt to execute the plan, they soon discover in the world of swingers, swindlers, gold diggers and mummy’s boys, it’s all about…The Kink!
The idea for The Kink had been sitting in the back of Alkinos Tsilimidos’ mind for three decades.
“I came across a story, 30 years ago, about a woman who hires a contract killer to dispose of her daughter-in-law to ‘save’ her son,” he recalls. “I always thought I must revisit this one day.”
The opportunity came after a visit from his old friend David Field a couple of years ago.
“I’ve worked with David for many years. We made Every night, Every night together, Silent Partner, films that have been screened in festivals around the world and we’ve had a good partnership going, myself as a director, and David as the lead actor. Although we hadn’t worked together for a long time, when he visited me he triggered the idea of making another film together.”
Tsilimidos admits he wrote a few drafts from the mother’s point of view but was never satisfied until he decided to tell the story from the perspective of the killers.
“And I thought, why don’t I try and make this a comedy?”
He wrote the script in just three days. Then life intervened. While travelling to Greece, a conversation with his close friend and Greek actor Vangelis Mourikis sparked a new idea: why not hand the directing reins to Field?
“It was the best decision,” he says. “I told David, ‘I’ve written it, you can direct it, and I’ll produce.’ From that moment, it became our project again.”
A suburban farce
To develop the plot, Tsilimidos reinvented the story and set it in Melbourne.
“The idea around local suburbia is that nothing really happens. But if you look behind closed doors, there’s everything going on!”
The dialogue-heavy script proved both a challenge and a gift.
“It meant a very long rehearsal process for all the actors,” he says. “That was the real difference with this film. We had a lot of fun workshopping it. Because it was a low-budget film, we didn’t have the money, but we had a lot of freedom. That actually allowed us to do more. It was unusual to have so much time to rehearse and the process was a joy.”
Once the actors realised how much fun they could have finding humour in the dialogue, the film took on a new life. “It became a gateway to creating character,” Tsilimidos explains. “I’d written some very heavy stereotypes, and the actors turned them into archetypes. They had the freedom to improvise with David and me.”
The result is, in Tsilimidos’ words, “quite mad.” A riotous, offbeat comedy that also pokes fun at our fascination with crime thrillers and murder mysteries.
“We thought, how can we tell this story — the good and the bad — and throw it all together to find the humour through the perpetrators doing the bad stuff, while somehow making them human?”
He adds, “everyone’s getting away with anything today, and I guess we wanted to play on the humour. World leaders can do whatever they want, so why can’t Mr And Mrs Suburbia, get away with whatever they’ve done too?”
A filmmaker’s evolution
For Tsilimidos, known for his stark social realism, this shift toward comedy reflects his personal and artistic growth.
It’s the material that determines the filmmaker’s evolution, he explains.
“I think as I’ve got older, I’ve found life funnier,” he says. “That’s probably the best thing that’s happened to me. If I can feed that into my work, fantastic. The danger is becoming cynical. With so much going on in the world right now, if you can keep a good sense of humour, I think we can all get through it.”
As experience sets in, there’s also less pressure.
“When you’re young, it’s really about ambition. It creates stress as you try to fulfil this expectation that you may have of yourself. But as you get older, at least for me, my personal ambition has dissipated. It doesn’t really exist. What excites me is the films, and watching actors give their best. That’s the best part of making films nowadays.”
Looking ahead
With The Kink about to make its world premiere, Tsilimidos admits to feeling both excitement and nerves.
“I know the audience will mostly be people of my generation, and I’m excited. But when you put a film up for the first time, there’s always a sense of terror. Because once it’s on screen, it’s no longer mine or David’s. It belongs to the audience.”
As for what’s next, he’s keeping his options open. Perhaps a sequel to The Taverna, perhaps something entirely new.
“I’ve always been independent, I don’t limit myself to anything,” he says. “That’s the beauty of it. Independence gives you freedom. The only real limitation is financial.”
