THE RHAPSODIST
.: WINNER of the YOUTH JURY AWARD at Thessaloniki International Film Festival :.
Festivals and Awards
Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2023) Premiere & Winner of Youth Jury Award
LA Greek Film Festival (2024)
Woods Hole Film Festival (2024)
New York Greek Film Expo (2024)
Greek Film Festival (Australia 2024)
Culver City Film Festival (2024)
When a rhapsodist tells his tale, the worlds of fact and fiction fold together until the only truth is the story and the rest is just life.
The Rhapsodist is a film about a storyteller, his listeners and his life. It's not always obvious where he draws the line between reality and imagination but the purity of his goal is never in question, or is it?
Along with the patrons at the The Fox Den Bar, we're taken on a wild ride by our storyteller (played ruefully by Prometheus Aleifer ). We meet his mother Melina (Maria Katsandri), his perpetual antagonist Kostas G (Thanos Tokakis) and a mysterious woman named Nora (Natalia Swift). The film is both an exploration of storytelling and the effect it can have on an audience. Chock full with the who's who of Greek independent cinema actors, it blends their astounding ability to mix drama with comedy and lands on a surprisingly fast paced but thoughtful 87 minute film.
87 Mintues
Greece
Greek | English
A Filmiki Productions Movie
BTS
The story behind the story:
Originally Nikolai (Writer/Director) set out to make a film in India with his friends Faidra Tsolina (Assistant Director) and Prometheus Aleifer (Leading Actor) in 2019. Unfortunately due to location issues this film fell through, but Faidra and Prometheus encouraged him to come to Greece to make a film. What would the film be? Well, at that time, no one knew... Regardless, Nikolai arrived in Greece in February 2020 and spent a month wandering the streets of Athens. It was from his observations and conversations during that month that the script for The Rhapsodist began to take shape. When he returned to the US in March to update his visa however, dun dun dunnnn... COVID! and it wasn't until late 2021 he was able to get back to Greece. Undetered these three filmmakers were joined by Thomas Tsiftelis (Cinematographer) and they got to work making the Rhapsodist. The film was finally shot over the summer of 2022 and finished post production in 2023.