Xenia

By: Amos Lassen

Danny (16) and Odysseus (18) go on a journey to find their father after their mother drank herself to death. Danny takes the Ferry from his home on Crete to go to Athens to break the news to his brother who now lives there. Danny is a confident wisecracking skinny kid with his dyed two-tone hair and funky clothes and is clearly out and proud to be gay. Odysseus his older handsome brother is quiet and reserved and couldn't possibly be more different. Neither of the boys have the right papers to live in Greece now that their mother has passed, so they hit on the idea of tracking down their Greek father who had walked out on the family 12 years prior, so that they can prove their dual nationality. The last news they had on their father was that he had become very rich and was living in Thessaloniki. Danny also persuades his brother who has a beautiful voice, to enter into a major singing competition because auditions are being held there.

As they journey they stop to visit Tassos, an old campy friend who had been almost an uncle to the boys. He now owns a nightclub and this gives them the chance to do a song and dance number. While his brother tries top get his big break, Danny secretly goes in search for his father based upon a lead he received.

Danny has already got into one dangerous scrape by brandishing a around, and now gets into more serious trouble when he reacts badly at the meeting at his father's house that goes nothing like he had planned.

Greek filmmaker Panos H. Koutras directed this and he very cleverly brings many different elements together here. We see his view of the social unrest in Greece with the backlash of a right-wing element that is making the statelessness of immigrants such a contentious problem now in the current economic downtown. Then there is the story of the brothers who are two young men trying to find their roots and their identity. There is also the topic of gay bashing too. Juxtaposed over all this are several outrageous 'let's sing a song' scenes like an old-fashioned musical and somehow it all syncs so well together. A great deal of the credit is due to his two young lead actors Nikos Gelia and Kostas Nikouli who made their characters extremely likable with their pitch-perfect performances, and who had such great chemistry between them.

The film mixes fantasy with reality and camp. "Xenia" refers to the Greek tradition of generous hospitality toward strangers ? an appropriate title, then, for a film that gladly accommodates all manner of curiosities which include giant talking rabbits to chest-rug dream sequences to a cameo from venerable Italian pop diva Patty Pravo. It also seems to be inspired from Gregg Araki, early Almodovar and the Eurovision Song Contest. It is too bad that the film is a bit too long and uneven throughout.

The film begins in our faces with 15-year-old Danny being orally pleasured by a significantly older man and it is interesting to see his response to it. Danny is flamboyant with his pierced septum and bleached boy-band haircut. He is open about his sexuality and is therefore vulnerable to bullying and exploitation. The film is a farce that sometimes goes a bit too far. If you just watch it for fun, you will be well satisfied.