WEDNESDAY 04:45

Film Info

Greece 2015 | 116 min. Director: Alexis Alexiou

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WEDNESDAY 04:45

Synopsis

Stelios is the owner of a jazz club in Athens. A few years ago, through the help of his former associate Vassos, Stelios received a business loan from the Romanian in order to renovate his club. In 2010, the recession finds Stelios on the brink of bankruptcy unable to repay the loan. The Romanian meets with Stelios and gives him one day to come up with a solution. Trying to buy some good will for his old friend, Vassos asks Stelios to meet up with Omar, an Albanian strip-bar owner who also owes money to the Romanian.

Omar and Stelios’ lives will soon cross in the most unexpected of ways. In a vortex of adultery, drug abuse, violence, guilt and self-deception, Stelios has only a few hours left to save his club, salvage his crumbling marriage, battle the mafia loan-sharks, baptize his employee’s kid and show up at school to receive his son’s report card as a responsible parent.

Cast & Crew

Director

Alexis Alexiou
Producer

Thanassis Karathanos, Kostas Lambropoulos, Talia Kleinhendler, Osnat Handelsman-Keren
Screenwriter

Alexis Alexiou
Director of photography

Christos Karamanis
Protagonist

Stelios Mainas (Stelios), Dimitris Tzoumakis (Vassos), Adam Bousdokos (driver), Giorgos Simeonidis (Omer), Mimi Branescu (the Romanian), Maria Nafpliotou (Sophia)
Editor (Cut)

Lambis Charalambidis
Sound Design

Avi Mizrahi
Original Score

Felizol Felizol
Production Design

Spyros Laskaris
Costume Design

Alkisti Mamali

Director's comment

WEDNESDAY 04:45 utilizes the film language of the crime drama / urban thriller genre in order to tell the story of a disillusioned middle-aged Greek businessman whose ambition and high expectations to succeed and make a difference are met with frustration and self-destruction; and at the same time, with a rather unexpected and violent catharsis.
Infused by a somewhat bitter, guilefully satirical and ironic sense of humour, WEDNESDAY 04:45 explores the darker side of the human psyche, utilizing the ongoing Greek social upheaval both as a backdrop and as a metaphor for the protagonist’s inner turmoil.
Against this small scale background of the Athenian underworld as presented by the screenplay, wider aspects and issues of contemporary Greek society are subtly addressed underpinning the constant shift of social dynamics brought about by the hyper-consumption, the influx of immigrants, the collapse of the economy and the ongoing failure of a lacklustre political administration to deal with issues.
Consequently, WEDNESDAY 04:45 is not just the story of one man’s botched dreams and lost chances. The film indirectly addresses the failed dreams, the lost causes and misplaced hopes of an entire generation of Greeks, who, deluded by the rapid economic growth at the beginning of the 80s (when Greece became a member of the European Union and disproportionate funds started to flow in), failed to foresee how things would evolve and possibly change for the worse. And it is in this respect that the protagonist’s frenzied, self-destructive journey can be understood as an ironic statement on the self-deluded course of a whole country’s middle class society towards desolation and defeat.
Yet, every time a new dawn fades in, a final chance to set things right, a last gleam of hope, will always lurk in the darkest of corners.