Our film review for Son of Sofia by Elina Psykou.
The Greek/French/Bulgarian film Son of Sofia by Elina Psykou works like a cautious (and perhaps too cautious) initiation into the magical mind of a kid who had better grow up. Set during the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, it has an 11-year-old, solemn, easily hurt Misha (Viktor Khomut) who travels from Russia to live with his mother, meeting a Russian athletic team at the airport as a welcome.
His Ukrainian mother, Sofia (Valery Tcheplanowa) works for Nikos (a commanding presence from Thanasis Papageorgiou), an elderly, old-school Greek man; Nikos' only concern in his immaculately old-fashioned home is his glorious TV past as a bona fide fairytale storyteller and educator of Greek children, and a harsh, but not strictly abusive, education format at home. A relic of another Greek era, Nikos wants to be a new father to Misha -in his own, antiquated way.
Misha is unaware of the situation and the marriage between Sofia and Nikos; his reaction is to withdraw even further into himself and start living out his magical fantasy games.
The film unfolds its narrative trajectory as a formalist fantasy, best rendered in interiors. The almost impeccable placement of props in Pinelopi Valti's art direction and the central framing of the early sequences suggest a deeply held drama poised to expand. It will not always fulfill this prophecy. Son of Sofia's exterior scenes look perfunctory, even though Misha is well acquainted with other Eastern European young outcasts -a reminder of the big bad wolf outside his own suffocated, adopted home.
The first, setting-the-stage act of the film is a fine, Mediterranean formalistic experiment to behold, in which Sofia gradually loses control of Misha and needs to be literally in the middle between her own past and her son, and her own present and her husband. Misha will also learn to explore the streets of Athens in 2004, even though he is prudent enough not to sink into outright juvenile delinquency.
Which makes the second act of the film(and its main character) and its resolution a bit indecisive in its tone and intentions; while Misha goes deeper into his fantasies, and learns to share them with everyone (except his mum), Son of Sofia won't really tell if Misha is angry or just a deeply depressed kid. The old adage that if you're going to show a gun in the first scene, you had better use it, still applies here. Misha both shows a gun and uses it -even though its outcome is not as potent as it should be.
Between Alain Resnais ' symbolism and Stanley Kubrick's naughty bears, Son of Sofia needs to expand its individual isolation story in a manner more solid and conspicuous; but the coming-of-age story, which is effectively thwarted, and the environment of championship as a fake goal to be attained is evidenced in this crisply edited film, full of fairytale characters vying for attention.
Vassilis Kroustallis
CREDITS:
Son of Sofia, 2017
Director-screenwriter: Elina Psykou | Cinematographer: Dionysis Efthimiopoulos | Editor: Nelly Ollivault | Producer: Giorgos Karnavas Co-Producer:Janja Kralj
Cast: Viktor Khomut, Valery Tcheplanowa, Thanasis Papageorgiou, Artemis Havalits, Christos Stergioglou, Iro Maltezou
Production: Heretic, KinoElectron, Chouchkov Brothers
