12 - Darker Worlds Come in Small Packages: Neo-Noir Sensibility in Greek Cypriot Short Films

Summary

The dominant paradigm of full-length Cypriot films, dubbed ‘the cinema of the Cyprus Problem’, has been described as suffering ‘from an excess of politics often to the detriment of compelling narrative dramaturgy’ (Constandinides and Papadakis 2014: 147). Films placed under this broad category go to great lengths to explain the twentieth-century conflicts and ongoing division of Cyprus, mostly through scenes, supporting/minor characters and symbolism that are surplus to narrative development. A group of recently produced Greek-Cypriot full-length films departs from the above conventions, as they focus on patriarchal violence and the dehumanisation of those suffering from it. Rosemarie (dir. Florides, 2018) stands out from this group as possibly the first Cypriot-produced (funded only by local sources) feature that consciously applies neo-noir elements. Nonetheless, a film language akin to noir can already be found in works belonging to the realm of Cypriot live-action fiction shorts. Such works focus on the adventures of criminal characters, or characters beaten by the system; their fortune or fall is prescribed by the dark cloak looming over the worlds they inhabit. Thus, the main aim of this chapter is to examine how elements traditionally associated with noir and neonoir films make their way into Greek-Cypriot shorts produced during the last decade. Furthermore, I will argue that the ominous themes and imagery of the specific Greek-Cypriot shorts can be read as an alternative to ‘the cinema of the Cyprus Problem’ and other stereotypical, usually idyllic, treatments of the Cypriot landscape. Despite the general understanding of the short film as a transitional form of cinema, the shorts in question display a substantial level of innovation, since they explore a genre-oriented cinema as opposed to the majority of full-length Cypriot films, which have focused on ‘offering analysis, comments, and interpretations of the traumatic past and its outcomes related to the Cyprus Problem’ (Constandinides and Papadakis 2014: 21).

More specifically, this chapter discusses four Greek-Cypriot live-action fiction shorts that employ noir characteristics to explore the complexities, as well as the limits, of familiar and simultaneously disconcerting circumstances: Ioakim Mylonas's Oedipus (2010), funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth (MECSY) of the Republic of Cyprus, and his no-budget short Greenhouse (2013); the independently made I metamesonyktia grammi/The Midnight Shift (2015) by Andreas Kyriacou (aka Splash); and Quidnunc (2018) by Harry Ayiotis, also funded by MECSY.