TASTE OF CINEMA (USA)
Athanasiou’s crowd funded feature – the first Greek film of this sort – is a deconstruction / postmodernization of the myth of Antigone and a psychological study of “anti-Antigone” in the state of isolation. The dialogues are reduced to a minimum, so the author speaks in excellent B&W images and layered soundscapes.
Slug Magazine ★★★★★ (USA)
In an industry dominated by bigger-than-Mount Olympus budgets pumping out the same predictable junk year after year, it takes a mighty vision to truly horrify with cinema these days. Cue Alpha: a modern dystopian tale from the birthplace of democracy, inspired by one of ancient Greece’s archetypal myths—Sophocles’ Antigone. Shot in stunning black and white, Alpha begins with a tense confrontation between a woman (Serafita Gregoriadou), peering with one eye from behind a cracked-open door, and a fugitive man. She refuses to give him refuge. The first act follows the man’s terrifying and futile flight from a gas-masked gang in a bleak urban setting, shot in first-person perspective to a dizzying effect. The woman paces around her home, followed by the camera in an almost voyeuristic way, until she’s captured by the same authoritarian thugs, who take her to a burnt and desolate forest where she’s forced to sit under the man, her brother, unable to bury him. Alpha goes beyond the scope of cinema alone, to include live performances by a string quartet, actor and chorus in some settings, investigating the question posed long ago by Sophocles: Is human law, Justice?
PopMatters (Canada)
Filmmaker Stathis Athanasiou’s strange and otherworldly Alpha is a visionary work of film, referencing the poetic realism of Marcel Carné as much as it does the propulsive terror of a slasher film.
In the assemblage of the narrative structure, Athanasiou manages some impressive feats; there’s an almost sensual layering of image and sound, which often reconfigures whenever the narrative introduces new action. Consider the film’s opening, which cleverly presents a deceptive sequence of events: in the compressed air of shallow breathing, marching feet and the nearly silent sweep of ominous wind that circles in the background, the aural-visual dynamics work to give the impression that we are watching a slasher film. As the camera roves interrogatively, almost prowling the premises with the determined persistence of a stalker, Athanasiou employs a delicate segue into the poetic realism of Alpha’s internal world, her unobstructed home life.
Smells Like Screen Spirit ★★★★ (USA)
Sometimes mysteriously oblique, other times viscerally poetic, Athanasiou’s film artfully discusses the inherent existential struggle of living in fear of everything. The puzzle-like structure of Athanasiou’s narrative unfolds like a treatise on the impossibility of true democracy, due to the inherent lack of justice and the natural human tendency to prefer isolationism and self-preservation. Though, the world of Alpha takes place long after a democratic state has evolved into a militarist dictatorship, at which point anarchy seems like the only viable next step.
TwitchFilm (USA)
Alpha is a beguiling blend of science fiction and Greek tragedy brought to life with both cinematic and theatrical techniques, enlisting an army of artists from all walks of life to create a piece of challenging beauty and strangeness. Get a taste of this mesmerizing world Athanasiou and company have created.
El Antepenúltimo Mohicano ★★★★ (Spain): Un tipo de cine alejado de fórmulas y estereotipos que lanza una mirada plena de fuerza al pasado transformándolo en poesía de nuestro presente.
Utah Awards (USA)
Directed by Stathis Athanasiou and starring Serafita Grigoriadou, Alpha takes you through a beaten woman’s hallucinatory world of pain and fear that slowly develops into determination and strength. Shot in black and white, Alpha is a stunning work in visual storytelling.
Dan Mirvish Slamdance Co-Founder-at-Large
The ancient Greeks invented "transmedia" almost 2500 years before anyone knew what it meant. Combining actors, musicians, a singing and dancing chorus, masks and giant phallic props, Greek theater knew how to entertain its audience by any means necessary. Even Plato talked about people chained to their seats in a dark cave watching shadows projected on the wall. Now comes award-winning filmmaker Stathis Athanasiou, who's taken the best of the ancient traditions and mashed them up with modern Greek cinema and American-indie inspired transmedia to come up with a truly unique and impressive film project. Owing as much to Ted Hope and Lance Weiller as to Sophocles and Antigone, Alpha was a hit at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, and Slamdance is proud to present the International Premiere of this gorgeous, groundbreaking film experience!