Suntan (2016)

The greatest movie ever!

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Greek islands are known for letting loose and getting it on. Easy chick is there with her friends and they are thin, nubile, horny and flaunting. The thin, naked and tanned bodies on display and the easy dirty blonde makes real men hard and excited to watch. Yet, the film throws you for a loop. The girls by all rights must be the easiest for a doctor, but the island's new doctor is a fat slob who does not touch enough and makes the mistake of not wearing his white coat uniform which makes chicks even wetter. The dude instead exposes his fat belly. Way to go loser. Still worth watching for the chicks, Greek islands and something different.

Greece has hundreds of islands full of life during the summer but gloomy and melancholic during the winter. For us Greeks who work at the public sector, these islands are a necessary first step in order to accumulate points and someday maybe we will be able to work closer to our hometown where our interests lie. The middle aged doctor is a bit old to start his career from Antiparos but for various reasons that's what he does. He is strange guy. A bit of a loner. He doesn't make friends easily, especially with women. So here he is. A rainy day he disembarks on this small, windy, scarcely populated island and he tries to get used to his new life style. It suits him fine. But then, Summer arrives and with it, thousands of tourists. Young boys and girls, open minded, ready to have fun, willing to make the best of their holiday. The young doctor falls in love with a young woman but he seems to be a little more serious than he should have. He gets pushy, anxious,then careless and finally paranoid.

An unhappy middle-aged doctor is posted to a Greek island where he meets a hedonistic group of young people, one of which, a beautiful, liberated girl, he falls for.This is the kind of film that puritanical, emotionally stunted Hollywood - and probably even the rest of increasingly Islamified Western Europe - is not capable of making nowadays. It's a searingly human drama about unrequited love, the consequences of ageing, and the depths to which a human can sink when failure and rejection become commonplace. It's brave, bold and beautiful.Casually erotic (the actress who plays the frequently nude Anna could be described as cinematic Viagra), superbly acted by the lead (his character has to plummet to depths that are excruciating to watch) and unnervingly accurate in whatever scene it turns its eye to, it dares to tell a story that is as dark as we all are beneath our exteriors. And it triumphs.The outraged person who gives this film 1/10 on this site hilariously appears not to have even seen it as they get a major plot point completely wrong.

I saw this movie at its premiere, at Rotterdam International Film Festival 2016. The plot is a really simple story of a disappointed 40-something year old man, Kostis (Makis Papadimitriou, "Chevalier"), who, while working as a doctor in Antiparos island, falls passionately in love with a young Anna (Elli Trigkou). The movie is set in the beautiful, yet crazy scenery of Antiparos, and it portrays its atmosphere and hedonistic frenzy in a vivid and realistic way. The drunkenness of summer and the liberal power of youth, as captured by the lens of Argyris Papadimitropoulos ("Wasted Youth"), are constantly being collated with the awkward phase of the middle aged body and the protagonist's useless struggle of overlooking it. The photography and visuals of the movie are stunning. Each frame is carefully set in a way that the characters inner selves are revealed through nature. The documentary-like feel of some of them serves as a catalyst in enclosing the atmosphere of the place through the unfolding of the plot. The body, and the ways we perceive it are also part of the plot, so be prepared for a lot of nudism and strong language. Makis Papadimitriou seems to be the best choice of portraying the disappointed, dissatisfied man who falls victim of his own passions. His performance is excellent, realistic and never over the top. Elli Trigkou is also convincing as Anna, and the rest of the cast seems to be carefully chosen. All in all, this movie is the vivid and painful hymn of the coming of middle age. A must see.