Apples

2020 ‘Μήλα’ Directed by Christos Nikou

Aris, a solitary man in his late thirties, becomes a victim of an unexplained surge of memory loss disorders in his city and is forced to confront his severe amnesia through an experimental new treatment.

Aris Servetalis Sofia Georgovassili Anna Kalaitzidou Argyris Bakirtzis Kostas Laskos Costas Xikominos Alexandra Aidini

Alternative Title

Mila

comedy drama

91 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by ˗ˏˋ Liam ˊˎ˗ ★★★★ 3

don't you just love it when a film turns out to be as good as its poster
Review by Ian Floodgate ★★★★

While some people might be craving a return to “normal life” with a potential end to the COVID-19 pandemic visible, other people might question what “normal life” is. Coronavirus is likely to change some of our daily habits, like our cleanliness. However, most of us are unlikely to change how we use technology because it has not been directly affected. Nevertheless, because of the harm social media can cause, which is part of our so-called “normal life”, it may be seen as an epidemic itself, and indeed the lasting consequences of this pandemic and social media’s role in it are troubling. This pandemic has also raised further awareness of mental health, with many people struggling to cope with isolation and…
Review by davidehrlich ★★★ 1

Pandemics come in a handful of different varieties — some we accurately diagnose, and some we don’t even notice. A highly contagious outbreak of coronavirus (to pick a random example) leaves behind a trail of bodies that makes it rather easy for right-thinking people to recognize the disease for what it is. Other global health crises, however, can be harder to spot. The ones that poison our mental health. The ones that disguise themselves as progress. The ones that seduce us into forgetting who we are.
Set in an analog and uncertain version of the recent past (or perhaps in a parallel universe where the iPhone was never invented), Christos Nikou’s “Apples” begins in the midst of a slow-rolling plague…
Review by aaron ★★★★ 2

can we discuss this sexy poster and aspect ratio though !!!
Review by Lucy ★★★½

AFI 2020: film #14
“a lot of people have forgotten”
i thought i was ready for whatever this threw at me, but somehow wasn’t expecting a subtle character study. it feels like a yorgos, but with a much lighter touch, more reminiscent of alps than anything else. i was fully engaged with it all, but it still didn’t give me enough, ending as simply as it began. i dig this concept more than i love the outcome
(i do have to add that the titanic reference made me yelp because of how some of the dialogue is phrased: “i cried my eyes out the other day. have you seen this movie?”)
Review by Jack ★★★½ 4

Christos Nikou’s debut feature, Apples, is a deadpan yet delightful rumination on memory and identity. It has that austere dryness of a Lanthimos film and the absurd existentialism of Kaufman; cleverly inflicting a sense of eerie banality only elevated by the film’s 4:3 aspect ratio. It’s a very promising debut coming from a strong, fresh voice within Greek cinema, and I’m excited to see what Nikou does next.
Review by john ★★★

boy does the title deliver
Review by Owen ★★★½ 3

more films shot in the 4:3 aspect ratio please! also this has one of the best posters of the year
Review by Matt ★★★★★ 2

السينما اليونانية لا مثيل لها أبدًا، هذه قاعدة عندي وإن كانت إنتاجاتهم ليست كثيرة بما يكفي. في هذا العمل الأفضل في 2020 بلا شك ومن أحد تلاميذ لانثيموس، يناقش الحالة البشرية والذكريات ومعضلتنا الأبدية مع رحلينا التحمي بشكل جميل ومؤثر جدًا. ترجمة الفيلم قبل مشاهدته والحوارات أثرت فيني بشكل كبير.
ترجمتي للفيلم: subscene.com/subtitles/apples/arabic/2367770
Review by Brian Tallerico ★★★★ 3

How you like dem Apples?!?!?
Sorry. This is pretty good, by the way.
Review by Matt Neglia ★★★½ 2

APPLES, the directorial debut from Yorgos Lanthimos protege Christos Nikou, is a strange, dry & somber look at memory & identity in a world where a pandemic is inflicting people with amnesia. Its disconnected yet haunting style displays a vision fueled by thought & confidence.
Review by Vince The Cinephile ★★

Greece’s submission to the 2021 Oscars for Best International Feature is a somber, but soulless evocation of memory and loss in Christos Nikou’s directorial debut Apples. It’s worth noting that Nikou has worked with fellow Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos as the film feels Lanthimosian in its deadpan structure and weird thematic content. But what it lacks is the haunting quality that speaks within Lanthimos’ works. Apples is very much like a rushed concept that isn’t fleshed out efficiently. The film follows a man who got afflicted by an amnesia virus and turns to reprogram his entire brain with new memories and experiences. The idea is quite promising in itself, however Nikou have all these things up in the air without much care for an audience to understand what’s happening. Thus, the viewing feels insipid, and insignificant.

Recent reviews

Review by Jonny Mowat ★★★½

10 – GREECE
Glasgow Film Festival 2021 – #6
Watched this at 7:30am in the morning which I think worked as I was not yet functioning at full capacity and this film is a slowpoke so it paired well. It did feel like the story could have been told in a third of the runtime but it was all beautifully shot and well made and great outfits and captivating deadpan face on the main lad so I enjoyed myself! Lovely wee concept, nice and contained. Half a star deducted for too much soup.
Review by Sammy Palmer ★★½ 2

If you don’t have a memory, did it even happen?
Some interesting ideas here that sadly I don’t think fully come to fruition.
There seems to be ties here to avoiding grief and the hoops we throw ourselves through to recreate a process we may have been through before but in a far more controlled state instead of happening sporadically.
Grief can affect people in different ways, and can leave you feeling hollow inside searching for that spark to renew your aspirations and such, and this film seems to take a similar approach in paralleling amnesia and loss in a similar vein; the numbness.
Avoiding spoilers, one character follows their prescribed actions and ends up finding their spark, but does…
Review by annamariee ★★★★★

only reason im proud to be greek is greek cinema
Review by Andrew Pope ★★★

Like a sweeter, achingly sincere, less funny Lanthimos. Nice, but a bit draggy. Good academy ratio compositions, reflecting the Polaroids that feature in the plot.
The scene with many people dancing to Chubby Checker sure hits different in March 2021. Let’s, in a very real sense, twist again.
Review by David @ GFF21

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Review by Giancarlo ★★★★½

Film number 6 for #GFF21
I always enjoy the cinematic language & black comedy of “Greek weird wave” films but I was blindsided by the depth and emotion of this one. The 35mm shots are stunning, I love the slightly-off vibe with all the analogue tech, & the central performance is bang on. Hands down my favourite of the Film Festival so far
Review by james ★★★½

if you take the existentialism from a charlie kaufman film, and the deadpan style of a yorgos lanthimos, then you only have a slither of this film. christos nikou brings his film to life with a softer and more eerie tone with cinematography and the tight framing of a 4:3 aspect ratio that elevate the feeling of existentialism in a raw and poignant way. if you get the chance to watch this then i’d definitely recommend it.
Review by Nicolas ★★★★½

This worked on so many levels for me.
For starters, memories are associated with experiences and each experience shapes who we are. Our gut feelings and reactions with the world and things around us are defined on the degree and type of interaction we engage with over time.
Our protagonists who are confronted with sudden amnesia and are cared from from the state and given an option to start over by developing a new set of memories before they can be placed back into society. This is done by simply undertaking a long list of tasks to generate a new set of experiences. They simply need to verify this with a Polaroid picture.
Funny how this is set in a…
Review by northseaview ★★★½

Dry humour and poignancy in the story of man who suddenly forgets his past in an epidemic of people forgetting. He is sent on a program to create a new life where he meets a woman. Generally uncommunicative and reticent we discover he has recently lost his wife and whilst initially not wanting to remember he confronts his grief and remembers his life.
The director was an assistant director to Yorgos Lanthimos and it has the absurd elements of his films. I was left thinking that the epidemic of forgetting might represent a collective grief. Made me think of the effect of Covid.
Review by 𝕛𝕒𝕔𝕜 ★★★★

The comparisons to Yorgos Lanthimos’ work this appears to be getting are a little annoying to me, perhaps because I’m not always sold on his films in the first place. It has vaguely similar “deadpan” performances but fundamentally Lanthimos’ style is cold and inhuman, whereas this is warm and strangely soulful; the characters here are not dead automatons, they’re just a little lost and awkward in a charming sort of way. I’d be quicker to compare it to Spike Jonze’s “Her” than any of Lanthimos’ films.
On its own it stands as a unique and melancholy take on memory, loneliness and grief with a very comforting aesthetic - utilising soft light on film, 4:3 aspect ratio and nostalgia-tinged analogue technology. Overall, less about its admittedly intriguing concept and more about its central character and his act of forgetting.
Review by Logan ★★★

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL - FILM #6
I don't think I fully loved this as much as I wanted to. It does have that distinct, off kilter Lanthimos vibe, but nowhere near as extreme. I do think having that detached energy really benefits the story it wants to tell, but sometimes that comes at the cost of me not feeling super invested in it's characters and world. It's exploration of identity, memories and how we experience the world is interesting, but not fully explored enough.
I still think it's really fascinating and has some great moments, but like maybe it just wasn't what I expected. Might grow on me later on
Review by Bradley Fielding ★★★★★

In Greece during the late 2000s, an unorthodox cinematic movement ignited in the wake of the country’s financial crisis. Coined as “Greek Weird Wave”, the characteristics of these “weird” films were the strange and perverse narratives, unusual imagery and unsubtle undertones that reflected upon the country’s instability and decaying society.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the poster boy of this subgenre is Yorgos Lanthimos. With his earliest works such as Kinetta, Dogtooth and Alps taking inspiration from the country’s collapse, Lanthimos helped create a niche brand of bizarro independently-made films.
The distinctiveness of Lanthimos’ films helped skyrocket his filmmaking career into the stratosphere. Dogtooth won the Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for…