Strella

Strella (Greek: Στρέλλα; international title: A Woman's Way) is a 2009 Greek drama film written and directed by Panos H. Koutras. The plot centres around the relationship between a 45-year-old ex-convict and a 25-year-old transgender woman.

Plot

Yiorgos Mihalopoulos (Yiannis Kokiasmenos) is released from prison after 14 years of incarceration for a murder he committed in his small Greek village. He spends his first night out in a cheap hotel in Athens where he meets Stella (Mina Orfanou), a young and beautiful prostitute who is nicknamed "Strella" by her friends. He goes to his village where he hopes to reconnect with his son Leonidas, whom he has lost contact with. That night, Strella invites him for whiskey, and Yiorgos deduces Strella is a trans woman. Despite Strella's initial resistance, the two have sex before parting the morning after.

Strella lives in her humble apartment and works at a club called The Dolls where she performs in drag. After a failed search for Leonidas, Strella invites Yiorgos to see her perform, and later lets him stay in her place where they have sex again. Yiorgos moves out of the hotel after Strella offers to let him stay temporarily.

Strella goes to the place of Mary, an elderly and cancer-striken trans woman who had helped raised her, to provide her morphine patches and to fix her television. Strella informs Mary about meeting a new lover, while Mary implores her to stop an unspecified pursuit she is taking. Mary reminisces about her late lover, Anestis, and shares to Strella her plans for her funeral.

Yiorgos' search leads him to a place where he discovers a Leonidas who works as a police officer, and does not approach him. Satisfied at the end of his search, he settles down with Strella as his lover. Yiorgos returns to his village to sell his family home to Kouloukousis, a retired cop, who claims that rumors around the village say that Leonidas is not a police officer, but was now a woman working as a prostitute in Athens. Piecing together that Leonidas might have been Strella all along, Yiorgos quickly leaves.

Returning home, Yiorgos confronts Strella about her past. Strella shares her story which accurately reflects Yiorgos' crime: as a nine year-old boy, Strella was in love with her 17 year-old maternal uncle. When she arrived home from school the same time as her uncle, her uncle coerced her into performing sexual acts, before her father came and killed her uncle and injured her. She was brought to the hospital before her father surrendered himself. She was raised by her grandmother and left her village after she died. Yiorgos leaves wordlessly.

Yiorgos returns the next day and reveals to Strella that he is her father, enraged at committing incest. In the middle of their conversation, Strella's gay best friend Alex arrives. Alex's homophobic mother had died from an overdose and asked money from Strella to travel home, as well as clothes and a bag. Yiorgos notices one of Strella's bags that Alex had taken out, and realizes Strella was the woman he had spotted carrying it on the day of his release, finally deducing Strella had known all along Yiorgos was her father and committed incest with him anyway. After Alex leaves, Yiorgos angrily confronts Strella, who admits she had known all along when he'd be released and wanted just to see him. She followed him to his hotel, where she saw him as a stranger and was carried away when they had sex and they fell in love. Realizing Strella still wants to pursue their incestuous relationship, Yiorgos leaves, but stays when Strella begs him not to abandon her again.

Strella visits the ailing Mary, who chastises her for pursuing a relationship with her own father. Although Mary admits that her lover Anestis was her uncle, she tells Strella that she has no future with her own father as her lover. Yiorgos and Strella argue again at her home, and when he tells her he will sell their family home, Strella gives him the key to the house that she had kept all this time. Yiorgos berates Strella for her sex work, and they argue about Yiorgos killing her uncle, with Strella saying she liked it while Yiorgos reminds her that he was abusing her. The argument ends with Yiorgos repeatedly slapping her before leaving.

Yiorgos returns to his family home and discovers pictures and toys that remind him of him and Strella years ago. Meanwhile, Strella discovers that Mary has committed suicide by overdosing on the morphine packets. Alex and his baby sister goes to live with Strella, but Strella notices Yiorgos following her. Strella accepts a gig where they meet at a lucrative hotel, but she only finds Yiorgos there. Yiorgos admits he misses her and offers reconciliation, and Strella admits she misses him too, but leaves. She goes home crying.

On New Year's Eve, Yiorgos has fully reconciled with Strella, and is living again with her, Alex, and Alex's sister. Inviting Yiorgos' old cellmate and his friend, they celebrate the new year together.

Production

The film was shot on location in Athens and Peloponnese. The role of Strella was performed by the amateur actress Mina Orfanou, who is a trans woman.

Awards

The film was premiered in the 59th Berlin International Film Festival - Section Panorama - in February 2009 and has participated since in more than 20 international film festivals all over the world. It was one of the 48 films nominated for the European Film Awards in 2009.

Strella won four awards of the eleven it was nominated for, including best actress and art direction, at the first Hellenic Film Academy awards ceremony in 2010.[1]

Cast

References

  1. ^ Grivas, Alexis (4 May 2010). "Dogtooth, Strella dominate Hellenic Film Academy's new awards". Screen Daily. Retrieved 24 January 2016.