Cine Europa, one of the longest foreign language film festivals in the Philippines, returns with 100% on-site screenings this June 16-July 16, 2023 in various cinemas/locations around the country.
A total of 28 films (26 feature length and 2 shorts) from European Union member states, plus guest country Ukraine, are lined up for the festival's 26th edition in different venues such as the Shangri-La Plaza's Red Carpet, Rizal Park's Open Air Auditorium, the Cultural Center of the Philippines', SM Cinema Cebu, and various FDCP Cinematheques in the country.
Dodo (Greece/2022)
One of the movies in the line up is Dodo from Greece. A Cannes Premiere entry at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, this film written and directed by Panos H. Koutras centers on the tense hours before a wedding that descends into madness through an inexplicable appearance of a dodo.
The film sees Sophia (Natassa Exindaveloni) about to be married off to her rich childhood sweetheart as a way for her family to get out of debt. Her parents, Pavlos (Akis Sakellariou), a former politician who has fallen from grace, and Mariella (Smaragda Karidi), a retired actress who finds purpose in volunteering at a refugee camp, are both on their toes with the wedding preparations at their luxurious villa knowing that they are both incapable to finance the occasion.
A quick money making scheme gone awry by Pavlos and a naive act of volunterism by Mariella see the two drag a myriad of characters along with them back to the villa making the wedding preparations more tense as the hours tick away. Soon enough everybody in the villa, along with the quirky folks working on the wedding itself, find themselves caught in the web of absurdity when the dodo runs free inside the villa after escaping from the shed where it has been hiding.
With the wedding poised to become a major disaster and each of the characters' problems intensifying as the hours go by, the presence of the dodo seems to provide a glimmer of hope or a portent of the doom that awaits each of them.
To find out how everyone's problems get resolved and to learn the fate of the dodo, one has to see the film up until the end.
Catch Dodo on June 18, 2023, 7:30 PM at the Red Carpet, Shangri-La Plaza Mall.
Cine Europa 26 starts on June 16, 2023 at the Red Carpet, Shangri-La Plaza Mall with screenings until June 18, 2023.
On June 21-23, 2023, the festival moves to the Film Development Council of the Philippines' Cinematheque Manila. The Cultural Center of the Philippines hosts the festival on June 24-25, 2023. The festival hops on to the Rizal Park's Open Auditorium on June 30-July 2, 2023.
Cine Europa 26 goes to SM Cinema Cebu on July 5-7, 2023. Then it makes the rounds on FDCP Cinematheques in Iloilo on July 8-9, 12-16; in Bacolod on July 14-16; and in Davao on July 14-16.
Cine Europa 26 is presented by Delegation of the European Union in the Philippines, in partnership with the Film Development Council of the Philippines, the National Parks and Development Committee, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, and SM Cinemas.
