Following its prize-winning premiere at the Venice Film Festival and a whirlwind tour of the fall festival circuit, “A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra,” by Greek filmmaker Jacqueline Lentzou, celebrates its homecoming this week at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, where it’s competing for top honors in the festival’s main international competition.
Inspired by true events, Lentzou’s sophomore feature follows the unruly, melancholic 15-year-old Jo — played by arresting newcomer Evia Andriopoulou — as she navigates the ups and downs of a typical day in a typical teenager’s life. Drifting through a series of seemingly unrelated and inconsequential events, an otherwise ordinary day is turned upside-down with the arrival of Phaedra (Anastasia Gouliamou), a bookish classmate whose warbling rendition of an old love ballad reduces Jo to tears. In an instant, her life — her drab, unremarkable day — becomes full of possibility, hurtling toward both tragedy and transformation.
“A Day in the Life of Jo” premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons strand, where it won the award for best director. It’s since gone on to a healthy festival run, including stops at the New York Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival and the Busan Film Festival. 1-2 Special will release the film in North America.
Speaking to Variety in Thessaloniki, Lentzou explains that the film was inspired by tragic real-life events: the 2008 killing of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, whose murder at the hands of Athens police sparked nationwide protests and riots — an event that marked a brutal coming of age for Lentzou’s generation and is still commemorated with massive protests every year.
While “this tragic incident served as the spark for the film,” the director says, it’s ultimately little more than a stepping stone for a profound and often moving meditation on life and the mystery of what comes after. Progressing in a loose, episodic fashion — “all days, at least my days, feel fragmented and non-linear,” Lentzou notes — it’s organized around a series of mundane events, all of which lead to an explosive, audacious and formally bold conclusion.
There are squabbles with Jo’s mother (Eleni Vergeti), the girl’s sole guardian since her parents’ divorce, and a visit from her dad. Other, enigmatic encounters recall the signs and symbols that came to Jo in a dream, hinting at the porous borders between sleeping and waking, between conscious and unconscious — or, Lentzou suggests, between life and whatever comes next. At its heart is what the director describes as “the film’s existential game of who and what we truly are.”
The movie is carried by a startling performance from debutante Andriopoulou, who Lentzou says she discovered “after an exhausting and admittedly disappointing two-month casting session” that ultimately led to an open call.
“My hopes were not very high, yet at some point Evita enters, shyly and very, very gently, and it felt like meeting a part of me,” Lentzou explains. “I sensed a wound, a small breakage despite the youth of her age, and this is what led me to choosing her: a girl with whom I could communicate deeply.”
The director went on to praise Andriopoulou’s performance as being “full of pure, honest emotion,” insisting that a recent acting prize at the Euro Balkan Film Festival in Rome would be “the start of a series of accolades” for the film’s young star.
Lentzou also credits DoP Grimm Vandekerckhove for his striking cinematography, which captures the complicated play of emotions across Andriopoulou’s richly expressive face and imbues even quotidian objects and gestures with poetry and meaning.
“The key in the visual approach, the big question hovering over our heads, was how to depict the invisible (already a contrast in terms), how to make the subtle presence of another awareness felt through our camera work,” Lentzou says. “I cannot stress enough how much of the film’s insane success is owed to Grimm’s contribution and faith in the project.”
“A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra” is produced by Avion Films and Atalante Productions in co-production with Kelek Film, 4A4 Productions, ERT and Haris & Co. Lucky Number is handling world sales.
The Thessaloniki Film Festival runs Nov. 5 – 15.