Closing Night

While enjoying a day at Athens’ queer beach, Demosthenes offers to help his bestie and aspiring filmmaker Nikitas in drafting an idea for his feature debut, inspired by the events surrounding a certain dog named Carmen. Two summers ago, Demosthenes was stuck in Athens dealing with health issues of his father. This served as an excuse to reach out to his ex, Panos. Meanwhile, Panos got the overly cute Carmen, something he soon regretted. Likewise, Demosthenes seems to have regretted breaking up with Panos. Or did he not? Having premiered at the Venice Film Festival, in 2023, The Summer with Carmen is an unexpected and outlandish Greek comedy, dramatically faithful to the classical rules of narrative structure. Only here, our “hero” is a public server, sexy and clumsy, displaying his nakedness throughout most of the film, gifting us with his emphasized existential dramas, giving way to a very sharp comedy, full of sarcasm and nostalgia. J.F.