"Apples" is a Drama - Sci-Fi movie in which we watch the occurrence of a worldwide pandemic causing amnesia. A man is affected by it and is enrolled to a new program helping patients building new identities and start their lives from the beginning.
I found this movie interesting and it also reminded the movie "Little Fish" of 2020 that had some similarities. The plot was simple but interesting and the direction which was made by Christos Nikou was equally good. He presented very well the agony and struggle of a person who losses his memory, what he is being through and how is his new reality. The interpretation of Aris Servetalis who played as Aris was very good and he presented all the previous in a very unique way something that made us feel what he was feeling and follow him. Finally, I have to say that "Apples" is an interesting movie to watch and I recommend it to you since I am sure that you will enjoy it and you will learn something from it.
Keywords: memorymemory loss4:3
Plot summary
How selective is our memory? Do we remember what we have experienced or what we have chosen to remember? Can we forget the things that hurt us? In the end, are we simply just the sum of all those things we don't forget? Apples, an allegorical and somehow funny story, is in its core an effort to explore the way our memory functions and how this affects our being.
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Interesting...
A riddle worthy of making the effort of solving it.
I don't often like cinematic riddles, but this one deserves putting the effort to try and solve it. Especially since the movie itself gives us all the necessary clues for the solution.
The more I thought about this film the better I realized it was. It asks two basic questions what's our memories made of? And, how do we build new ones if we lost all those we had?
Yes, it's funny at moments, but I don't think it's a comedy and I said more than once on this pages "comedy drama" or "tragic comedy" are non terms as far as I'm concerned. Life have their funny moments, and showing these funny moments doesn't mean we're telling a funny story. In fact most of the loughs in this movie come from the artificial attempt to create new memories for these people who lost their old memories so they can build a new personality. It's like constructing a personality in a laboratory - that's not the way to do it. Personality is what carries us through real life and that's the only place where personalities can be built.
The film says this very loudly with a story that allows us very limited information about its protagonist. Aris, the protagonist seems to suffer from the amnesia sickness that the story tells us, is taking place all over the world. But we'll soon realize Aris does remember certain things, but doesn't like remembering. We'll have to reach the very end of the movie to solve its riddle and pay close attention to the clues provided through the story to find why Aris stopped fearing apples which are - as the film says - "good for the memory"
I won't be saying anything more, as this would mean adding a spoiler - I don't do these.
Good Filmmaking But a Bit of a Disconnect
"You could make a new beginning now."
Apples is a Greek movie that I fortunately got a ticket to during AFI. This must be the year for perfectly timed movie releases. Like our world today, the movie takes place during a worldwide pandemic. In this case, the unknown illness causes sudden amnesia. Middle-aged Aris finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities. I probably should've paid attention more in the beginning (I was finishing up some school work) because I had no idea what was actually going on the first 20 minutes. Once I figured everything out, I could actually start enjoying this movie. What I've found is Greek films have a certain style. All the ones I have seen have a quirky style, are drama-comedies, and have a deeper meaning to them. Apples follows this same setup the whole way through. I liked this style for the movie, but I found a major issue with pacing. The beginning starts off very slow and leaves many questions for the viewer. Right away there isn't much of an interest other than the acting and direction. Aris Servetalis plays Aris (I don't think the naming is coincidental) well. We're with him the whole time. He starts out having contracted this amnesia illness so we're blind with him. The comedy comes mainly from him. It's not the sort of laugh out loud comedy but it's more wholesome and situational. But the main source of interest comes from director Christos Nikou. He could be a new Yorgos Lanthimos. Their styles from the pale cinematography to the deadpan acting are very similar in the way of execution. I liked where he was coming from and this is a personal story to him as said in a Q&A with him, but this isn't as fleshed out as I would like it to be. Maybe a rewatch would help gain a better experience, but for now there's a bit of a disconnect. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a contender for international feature this awards season as it showcases good filmmaking.