During the Cannes Film Festival, there are also some parallel sections that show “smaller” films. We watched “Kyuka – Before Summer’s End”!
While the Cannes Film Festival is actually considered a festival for independent films with artistic aspirations, it can probably be said without objection that the film festival is also always geared towards commerce and glamour. This year, for example, the action blockbuster “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” will be shown, and last year there was “Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny”.
In order to promote aspiring young directors, several parallel sections were created, such as ACID, in which the Greek film “Kyuka – Before Summer’s End” was shown as the opening film. We saw the film and tell you whether you should put it on your radar!
The ACID section runs parallel to the regular Cannes programme and the main competition. The aim of the section is to put the spotlight on more daring and experimental films by young filmmakers. These are often first works.
We should be excited about what director Kostis Charamountanis will do in the future
With his first feature film, director Kostis Charamountanis demonstrates a wonderful sense of dreamy longing, sun-drenched images and just the right amount of humor to take us on a kind of dream journey for two hours, where we are told a story, but in our hearts our own thoughts are stimulated and made to think.
“Kyuka” tells the story of a father and his two children who are approaching their twenties. They go on vacation on the family boat and meet the mother of the two children, who ran away 13 years ago. The children have no idea who the person they meet is, but for the father this opens up old wounds.
The word Kyuka comes from Japanese and means vacation time.
From then on he distances himself from his own children and lives in a kind of trance that makes him think back to old memories, but at the same time makes him completely unresponsive to the here and now and overwhelms him. This kind of trance is transmitted to the audience through the film’s overly stylized, beautiful and sunny images.
Like a holiday video with all the gadgets that come with the joy of filmmaking
What increases the factor that we as viewers also fall into this trance, this nostalgia for a past relationship, a past hope for a future that was never meant to come about, is the image format. “Kyuka – Before Summer’s End” is filmed in 4:3 and looks like a home video.
Many scenes are also edited and filmed like a home video from a family vacation, interspersed with well-conceived and clearly staged moments in which western films are alluded to, the color design and image symmetry are reminiscent of Wes Anderson, or classical music is used to exaggerate many scenes.
However, it doesn’t seem like a break in style that throws people off course; it seems playful, as if the filmmakers were enjoying trying things out. It looks like a home video in which the joy of filming also plays a role and that makes you smile all the time: We’re going to be part of the summer vacation!
Full of heart, we are taken back to sunny memories: Not something for every day, but just the right thing for some days!
With “Kyuka – Before Summer’s End”, director Kostis Charamountanis creates a wonderfully sunny and warm-hearted film that takes us on a kind of dream journey with its colorful, symmetrical and yet authentic images. We are invited to become part of a summer vacation and let our own thoughts wander without slipping out of the film, but always staying very close to the protagonists. This is really high art!
| Age rating | from years |
| Duration | 103 minutes |
| Release | 14. May 2024 |
| Post-credit scene | ✘ |
occupation
Who streams Kyuka – Before Summer’s End?
Buy and rent Kyuka – Before Summer’s End
genre
Direction
producers
- Danae Spathara
- Giorgos Karnavas
- Konstantinos Kontovrakis
- Maria Dimitrova
Production companies
Greek Film Centre
Heretic
EPT
List production
Other sources
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