The Other Stage

1863. In a vast and desolate coast, Grand Tour voyagers are seeking Arcadia and the ancient ruins, symbols of an emerging Greek and European identity. More than one century later, the body of an unidentified man lies on the same coast…

Frieda Liappa in this short film casts an alternative gaze on the notion of historicity. Loukia is a teenager currently staying at her cousin’s house in Athens. Unlike her cousin she is timid and quite stressed for the school exam. She studies history. Between the lines of her book the historical events sprung up in a multidimensional way. Liappa transverses the dimensions of the real the imaginary and the symbolic. She invites the viewer to consider the construction of the filmic as well as the historical text. She succeeds in making a film with an open end and to leave room for our own contingent constructions.

Marina, 23, is growing up with her architect father in a prototype factory town by the sea. Finding the human species strange and repellent, she keeps her distance...that is until a stranger comes to town and challenges her to a foosball duel, on her own table. Her father, meanwhile, ritualistically prepares for his exit from the 20th century, which he considers to be "overrated."

Sotiris is a police investigator in Athens who lives by a strict moral code. An honest man, he carries himself as though held down by the weight of the world. Dora is a cleaning lady, struggling to get by any way she can. Dealt a rough hand in life, she has developed a rich layer of cynicism and mistrust that informs her every action. When a man Sotiris believes is innocent is arrested for a brutal crime, his attempt to uncover the truth results in a grave mistake. Finding himself on the other side of the law for the first time, he places his fate in Dora, the only witness to his malfeasance and the only person who can help him, for better or for worse.

Leonidas, a young, ambitious police officer, is assigned to a remote island in the Aegean Sea. He dreams of solving important crimes, but there are few to be found in the sleepy beach community where he is left to such menial chores. Each day at the town café, Leonidas and the other locals watch the beautiful Angeliki, the small islands most famous daughter, as she hosts a popular talk show on national TV. These daily rituals are shattered when the island experiences what appears to be an actual crime-the island drunk, Zacharias, is found dead at the base of a cliff. Eager to do some sleuthing, Leonidas soon finds clues that tie the victim to Angeliki, who returns to the island and joins the investigation.