Apples: An Amnesia Pandemic Provides Fodder for this Debut Feature About Identity and Loss
By Karen Gordon
Rating: A-minus
Greek director Christos Nikou makes an impressive feature film debut with Apples, a subtle, offbeat and quietly affecting movie about amnesia, identify and grief.
Set in Athens in the recent past - i.e.: before cellphones and computers - the world is in the grips of an incurable pandemic that hits randomly, causing amnesia.
Amnesia-stricken Aris (Aris Servetalis) makes new memories, though he can’t remember the old ones.
The film centers around a middle-aged man named Aris (Aris Servetalis). We get a quick glimpse of him at home before he appears to succumb to the pandemic. He leaves his lovely flat, an upscale residence that suggests he’s had a successful, maybe even comfortable life. When we catch up with him later in the day, he’s fallen asleep on the bus. The driver wakes him, but Aris has no idea of where he was going or who he is.
He has a wallet, but no ID, and so is taken to the Disturbed Memory Department of the Neurological Hospital. There, along with the latest group of new amnesiacs, his picture is taken and he’s given a number. The pictures are posted in hopes that someone will recognize him and come to claim him.
At the hospital, Aris discovers that he likes apples, which he eats meticulously, slicing off pieces with a knife, which becomes a kind of touchstone through the film.
When no one claims him, his doctors put him into the New Identity Program aimed at giving the patients, a chance to build a new life. He’s given a small tidy apartment to live in, with a cassette deck and a polaroid camera.
Every day, he gets a cassette with instructions on what he is to do that day. The tasks range from simple things, like going for a bicycle ride, to more social and even intimate tasks, like going to a bar, or having sex. He’s told to take polaroid pictures of events, to be placed in a photo album when he comes home.
There’s a random quality to the assigned tasks that adds a slightly absurdist, comic and, at times, charming tone to the movie. We watch Aris react, whether it’s buying apples, eating apples, or doing his tasks. Initially emotionless, he seems to spark into new life finding joy with what are either new experiences or callbacks to his old life. Eventually, he notices others taking polaroids, including a gregarious woman named Anna (Sofia Georgovassili) into whose orbit Aris is pulled.
Like its protagonist, Nikou’s film is quiet. And, although it has charm and is engaging, the tone is mostly somber.
That includes the look of the film. The colour palette, is subdued tones of greys, browns and blues. As well, the film was shot it in the 4.3 aspect ratio, which brings us closer to Aris, contributing a feeling of intimacy which is important here.
There’s a slightly detached quality to a lot of what is going on in the film, which seems to reflect Aris’s state of mind. Anna, for instance, has lost her memories too, but not her energy or zest for life. When she’s on the screen, the movie picks up her energy in a way that, in contrast to what we feel with Aris, is almost jarring.
Is he introverted, or emotionally blank? Is he sinking into depression or just naturally someone doesn’t reveal much.
Nikou, who wrote the film with his collaborator Stavros Raptis, isn’t terribly explicit about all of these details. Nikou doesn’t give us clues. We don’t get flashbacks of who Aris was before the amnesia hit him, and as well, he doesn’t loudly signal where this is going. It does come to a conclusion, but I will say that I found it worthwhile watching the film a second time to better digest the ending.
A lot of the success of the film rests on the shoulders of actor Servetalis and he is absolutely magnetic. Without a lot of dialogue, or emotional range to help him define his character, he holds our attention in this thoughtful performance.
Nikou has taken some big risks for his directorial debut. Apples walks a line between humour and pathos that isn't easily definable. But his restrained and thoughtful approach results in a deeply rewarding film. I’m looking forward to what he does next.
Apples. Directed by Christos Nikou, written by Christos Nikou and Stavros Raptis. Stars Aris Servetalis and Sofia Georgovassili. Opens In theatres, Friday, July 8, 2022.