2017
110' / 2.35:1

SUCCESS STORY

SUCCESS STORY /

DIRECTED BY:
Nikos Perakis
SCRIPT:
Katerina Bei
SUCCESS STORY poster

I think it was at the beginning of September 2014 that Katerina Bei (hereinafter 'Katbei') and I saw David Fincher's GONE GIRL. As we were walking out of the Opera Cinema she praised the film enthusiastically and wondered if we shouldn't try something thillerish ourselves. I told her to sit down and write one and I said if the script was good I'd shoot it.

Two months later she had a first draft. I made a few comments about the chronology of the Greek economic crisis, since the story began in September of 2007 and had to finish in the winter of 2014. I also suggested some locations that would be more 'cinematic' as well as some practical ideas to keep production costs down.

Katbei's girlfriend and lawyer, who is always the first to read her books and screenplays, baptized the film: 'SUCCESS STORY'.

In early January 2016 producer Kostas Lambropoulos sent the scenario along with proposals for a coproduction to the 'systemic' coproducers: GFC, ERT, and COSMOTE TV. (Respectively, the Greek Film Centre, Hellenic Radio and Television, and the country's main semi-public telecom.)

In the meantime Tom Sears translated the third draft into English and I sent it to three German producers I had worked with in the past and whom I was going to see at the beginning of February at the Berlinale. The Greek Weird Wave hadn't exhausted itself yet so none of the three expected from Greece, certainly not from me, a proposal for a tragicomic thriller. A few months later COSMOTE TV announced that in future they would coproduce only documentaries on historical subjects. We waited till November of 2016 for an answer, fortunately a positive one, from the GFC and till the end of the month for ERT to invite us to the press conference that the new management, I think it was the third one in a year, called to announce its coproductions. One among the many was SUCCESS STORY.

In the winter of 2016, according to the proposed schedule, Katbei began searching for and approaching actors, and after the holidays preparation began for the other, more costly, elements of the preproduction, with a view to start shooting in May. But then we were obliged to delay for three-weeks because none of the coproduction contracts had been signed. We knew that there was no private money or loan to be found, and that's why we were operating from the start on a very low budget. Casting had been completed and we began rehearsals at the locations and the streets where we planned to shoot, hoping that the essential signatures would be a matter of a few days, at most a couple of weeks. We learned from news reports that the problems were not economic but administrative, such as the resignations of executive committee and board members, replacements of directors, resignations of chairpersons – the usual dysfunctions of public service organizations. Three more weeks passed and we took the nearly fatal decision to start shooting on 22 May without waiting for formal agreements because if we had delayed any longer we would have been shooting in August (40° Celsius in the shade).

In the end there were only two signatures, and those came about the middle of July, after the film had been shot, while we had to wait for the first payments from our partners until September, when we finished the final cut. If you consider that in Greece two thirds of the financing is necessary to complete shooting you can appreciate that the film was finished only because of the goodwill that Lambropoulos enjoys in the film-making community.

PLOT

Panagis, a charming, wealthy and unscrupulous psychiatrist with political ambitions falls recklessly and passionately in love with beautiful Georgina, a struggling actress determined to get past her provincial working-class parents and their dead-end life. They marry but in her desperate efforts to fit into Panagis's world Georgina denies her true self and soon realises that nothing in her married life is as she imagined it. A difficult pregnancy combined with creative frustrations begin to transform her. The couple's differences are sharpened when Panagis insists that his wife support his involvement in politics. Things take a critical turn when his deeply indebted father commits suicide and the family's wealth is threatened. Their mutual admiration, attraction and passion give way to disappointment, isolation and antagonism. But the hatred and vengefulness that become their ruling passions only feed their separate ambitions to succeed at any cost. Ultimately they will both resort to extremes in order to survive.

 

Characters

Panayis Pandoras, 45, psychiatrist, psychologist, intellectual and author, he directs a psychiatric clinic, and is on the brink of a parallel career in politics. He is diabolically intelligent, arrogant, ambitious, charismatically attractive, manipulative and spoiled. He was sent by his father, a publisher, leading share-holder in a private television corporation, and patron of the arts, to study in America, where he met his future wife, Karen.

Georgina Tselepi, 23, daughter of a failed rock musician and a hairdresser who have been bankrupted by the crisis, Georgina is a graduate of the National Theatre school, has gained some notoriety as a priestess in the Olympic torch ceremony, and is serving as arm candy for a closeted gay deputy minister, when she meets Pandoras. When her dreams of a professional career are frustrated, she refocuses her hopes on a 'good marriage' into the upper echelons of society. An intelligent and quick-witted femme fatale, she treads.

Vasiliki Kavayia, 26, graduate of the National Theatre school, classmate and now roommate of Georgina, she comes from a petit-bourgeois family living over their bakery on the outskirts of Athens. Ambitious, uninhibited, sly, and dark, Vasiliki competes ruthlessly for what she wants. Her beauty, cunning, humour and seductiveness are only a few of the 'talents' she employs in her struggle to escape her destiny.

Errikos (Rico) Voichek, 45, lawyer and foreign-educated penologist, he is Panayis's occasional companion and jester. Pompous and self-important, Voichek often makes himself ridiculous with overly-solemn declarations, petty social poses, and love affairs . He likes high living and strives for the company of the rich, emulating as much as he can their lifestyle.

Valeria Zoumba, 25, winner of the "Miss Hellas 2005" beauty pageant, Valeria is of Albanian descent and Greek education. Voichek's recognised girlfriend and supplier of substances, she hopes to marry him. She is profoundly grateful to Voichek for intervening to get the charges dismissed when she was arrested for dealing in narcotics and involvement in a settling of scores, which has left her with a serious leg wound and the necessity of using a cane.

Iasonas Solomos, 40, neighbour and childhood friend of Pandoras, Iasonas is a college graduate and member of the new bourgeoisie. Intelligent and alcoholic, he takes nothing and nobody seriously. His snobbish comments are often coarse.

Danae Vourlia Solomou, 35, daughter of a ship-owner and wife to Iasonas, Danae occupies herself intensely with meditation and reiki. She is not in perfect communication with her environment, nor indeed with her husband.

Tolis, 50, Pandoras's stalwart, experienced bodyguard, Tolis is a bit awkward, but faithful as a dog.

Jimmy, 28, handsome, blunt, and naïve, with a deep innocence, and ignorance of danger. Also a bodyguard of Pandoras, he is later assigned to watch over Georgina.

CAST+CREW

POSTERS+LOBBY CARDS

In the past I got involved with the creative side of advertisement and distribution: posters, selection of photos, logos, trailers, etc.

This time the creative team at Odeon, enthusiastic about the film, persuaded me that the – free – social networks were the ideal medium for promotion of the film. We didn't have much choice since there was no budget, not for television ads or even bill-posting cost. So I agreed to 'direct' the actors in photo shoots for the poster, and to supervise the trailers. The film acquired a website, Facebook and Instagram pages, and a blog, but we couldn't find a blogger who could do the job. The only consolation was that audiences at test screenings liked the film, and the evaluations by trend experts wondered if the number of viewers would surpass half a million.

It also seems that we were living the same self-delusion – maybe due in part to the viral epidemic of voluntarism, that I've grown bored hearing about since it began ravaging a large part of the active population.

A few days after the glamorous premiere at the Pallas Theatre the film opened in cinemas. I'd say that it went unlamented since, even months after the cinema run, I met friends and acquaintances, some who had even played in the film as volunteers, who asked me: 'When do we open?'

Users of the web learned about the film but they didn't understand that it was playing in cinemas. The first day on the blog somebody asked: 'Hey you jerks, hasn't anybody downloaded it yet?'

STILLS+FRAMES

SCENES

MAKING OF

WORK PHOTOS

TEASERS+TRAILERS+TV SPOTS

VIDEO CLIPS+MUSIC THEMES

SHOOTING BOARDS+SCRIBBLES

ASIDES

Except for a souvenir photo of the mayor of Athens, Mr Kaminis, with actors and crew I couldn't find many worthwhile asides. On the other hand I didn't know where to put a chapter of the novel and some scenes from Katerina Bei's script, which were published by Savalas a few days before the film's premiere. And that was because to make a separate section for SCRIPT and NOVEL we would have had to change the whole structure of the webpage. At least that's what they told me.
The novel: Introduction and first chapter
The script: Scenes 1-9

As for the rest, I selected some of the entertainment press pieces from VOX TV, one of the channels controlled by the Pandoras group, which we uploaded on the web to inform the cinephile community of the film's release in cinemas. After the fact, I came to the conclusion that self-sarcasm on social media, without parallel promotion on the primary advertising medium, which despite today's failed economy is still television, only betrays the product's low level of competitiveness. Especially for the average social media freak would prefer to see a blockbuster with superheroes on the big screen.