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In Australian Cinemas August 20 2009
A Sharmill Films and Jump Street Films Release
Over the course of his legendary career, Greek director Costa-Gavras (Z, Missing, Music Box) has won almost every major accolade including the Academy Award®, the BAFTA, Berlin's Golden Bear and Cannes' Palme dOr. Now 76, he returns with perhaps his most personal film, and his sense of social engagement has never been stronger or more universal. The hardships suffered by illegal immigrants to Europe have been well recorded by the cinema, but EDEN IS WEST memorably captures the magical nature of the world one young man encounters where every experience is full of both promise and threat.
Just like in The Odyssey, it is in the Aegean Sea that the adventures of Elias (Riccardo Scamacio) begin. A rusting trawler packed with clandestine men, women and children slowly approaches the bright lights of an emerging shore, and we may not know where they all began but we know where they hope theyre going the West, an actual as well as mythical place. For Elias this will literally be Eden Club Paradise, the name of the resort at which he wakes up, and his extraordinary journey from there to reach Paris takes him across a microcosm of contemporary Europe. Gavras has crafted an epic story for our times, one full of heart, humour and wondrous complexities.
A Sharmill Films and Jump Street Films Release
Over the course of his legendary career, Greek director Costa-Gavras (Z, Missing, Music Box) has won almost every major accolade including the Academy Award®, the BAFTA, Berlin's Golden Bear and Cannes' Palme dOr. Now 76, he returns with perhaps his most personal film, and his sense of social engagement has never been stronger or more universal. The hardships suffered by illegal immigrants to Europe have been well recorded by the cinema, but EDEN IS WEST memorably captures the magical nature of the world one young man encounters where every experience is full of both promise and threat.
Just like in The Odyssey, it is in the Aegean Sea that the adventures of Elias (Riccardo Scamacio) begin. A rusting trawler packed with clandestine men, women and children slowly approaches the bright lights of an emerging shore, and we may not know where they all began but we know where they hope theyre going the West, an actual as well as mythical place. For Elias this will literally be Eden Club Paradise, the name of the resort at which he wakes up, and his extraordinary journey from there to reach Paris takes him across a microcosm of contemporary Europe. Gavras has crafted an epic story for our times, one full of heart, humour and wondrous complexities.