Constantinos Markoulakis Movies

One man's dogged search for freedom and a better life leads him on a picaresque journey in this comedy-drama from celebrated filmmaker Costa-Gavras. Elias (Ricardo Scamarcio) is a young man from a nameless country in the Mediterranean who has tossed away his passport and paid a smuggler a handsome fee to be hidden inside a ship making its way to Europe. When immigration authorities stage a surprise inspection, Elias jumps ship along with a number of other unauthorized passengers, and hours later he washed up on the clothes-optional beach of a luxury resort on the Southern coast of France. Wearing tattered clothes amidst folks who wear designer originals when they bother to dress at all, dogged by hunger while guess nibble at lavish open buffets, and presumed to be a laborer by the few guests who pay attention to him, Elias is a stranger in a very strange land as he tries to avoid immigration police and survive in a place where he can't speak the local language. Elias stumbles into a brief affair with Christina (Juliane Köhler), a German tourist looking for kicks, but he fares better when he meets Nick Nickelby (Ulrich Tukur), a traveling magician who gives Elias a job as a temporary assistant and invites him to visit him in Paris. When Nickelby moves on, Elias decides to make his way to the fabled city, which is the beginning of a long and sometimes dangerous journey though class-conscious Europe. Eden à l'ouest (aka Eden Is West) was screened at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival only a few days after its world premiere, appropriately held in Paris. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Two women turn the tables on their husbands, who soon discover they don't always turn back, in this comedy. Evgenia (Anna Mascha) is a professional photographer whose work is divided between fashion layouts and nude spreads for men's magazines. Vicky (Dimitra Matsouka) is Evgenia's makeup artist and best friend, and both of them have to juggle their professional commitments with their responsibilities as wives and mothers. Evgenia is sick and tired of her husband Filippos (Konstantinos Markoulakis) and his lack of enthusiasm about handling his share of the household responsibilities, and Vicky's hubby Manolis (Kleon Grigoriadis) fares no better in her eyes, so the two women decide to pool their resources and move their families into one big house. Neither Filippos nor Manolis are especially enthusiastic about this idea, but Evgenia and Vicky are not to be dissuaded. But when Evgenia and Vicky's friendship crosses a line and their husbands discover them in bed together; Filippos and Manolis are outraged and decide to take the children and move out until the women have come to their senses. The men weren't counting on their wives' reactions, however; Evgenia and Vicky are not bothered in the least, having a fine time away from their men and their kids, until Vicky is briefly brought back to the straight (if not narrow) when she has a fling with one of Evgenia's assistants -- much to Evgenia's annoyance. Rizoto was the third feature for writer and director Olga Malea and, like her other two pictures, it was a box-office sensation in her native Greece. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi