Drinks, The Shepherds of Calamity + panel discussion (18)

To launch of our new cinema strand Greek Salad, we'll be welcoming members for a special event for its first ever screening!

As the strand begins with a spotlight on director Nico Papatakis, who lived and worked between Ethiopia, Greece, and France, each ticket includes a complimentary drink inspired by the cultures that shaped him, with a choice of:

- An Ethiopian Habesha beer

- A glass of Greek tsipouro

- A glass of French Gamay wine

Following the drinks, we'll head into the screen for an introduction to Papatakis' work by Pr. Dimitris Papanikolaou (University of Oxford), as well as a screening of the filmmaker's masterpiece, The Shepherds of Calamity. Afterwards, Papanikolaou will be joined by strand curator Erifili Missiou, to discuss the film as well as Papatakis' further oeuvre.

Event timings:

18:30-19:30  Drinks in The Garden Bar

19:30-19:40  Screen doors open

19:40-19:45  Introduction by Pr. Dimitris Papanikolaou

19:45-21:45  Screening of The Shepherds of Calamity  

21:45-22:15  Post-screening discussion

Tickets are £17 each for members and their +1, and include a complimentary beverage, as well as an unallocated seat for the film & post-screening discussion.

Film synopsis:

Katina, an impoverished Greek woman, tries to arrange the marriage of her shepherd son, Thanos, to Despina, the daughter of a wealthy landowner. But Despina’s father, Vlahopoulos refuses to give his blessings.

Curator’s note:

The Shepherds of Calamity (1967), also known as Thanos and Despoina, is arguably Papatakis' finest work. The film was shot in rural Greece just before and during the military coup d'état. Admired by Claude Lévi-Strauss as a great ethnological film, it follows a conservative community's descent into riotous disorder after two young members refuse to abide by the established marital rules.  

Yorgos Lanthimos on The Shepherds of Calamity

Fellow Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg, Harvest) on The Shepherds of Calamity:

In the straitjacket of a backward, brutal, conservative, and patriarchal society, in which the rural population is left to its misery, Thanos and Despina introduce the element of chaos and freedom. But freedom can only be expressed within the corset, which distorts and grotesquely shapes it. One must watch Thanos dance with his dead dog on his back. One must see how Despina, in a monologue, rejects the progressive ideas of her brother on sexuality - and these ideas take possession of her as she speaks. One must endure that the amour fou between Thanos and Despina is not without violence and remains marked by a structural unity of sadism and submission. One must understand that the exploding goat at the beginning contains the film’s 'logic': A closed system is forced to burst under internal pressure.

Hatred stands out as clearly as the bones of a carcass decomposing in the sun. Both among the rich and the poor, Papatakis (much like Buñuel) shows no sympathy for anyone.

Content notes: The film contains animal violence, domestic abuse and violent imagery. The film will be screened with English subtitles.