The Enemy Within

The Enemy Within

107 mins | Drama, Thriller | Nov. 13, 2013

Revenge is a recurrent theme in thrillers, usually dispensed by action heroes with a well-stocked arsenal. But in Yorgos Tsemberopoulos’s nuanced moral maze the protagonist is the bookish Kostas (Manolis Mavromatakis), a suburban florist well versed in social and political theory, which he discusses at length with a local publican. But when his home is invaded by masked hoodlums, who bind his family and rape his teenage daughter, our everyman hero finds his intellectual stance untenable. Encouraged by his paranoid, militarist neighbour, Kostas decides to take the law into his own hands, and in doing so begins to understand – for the first time – the world he has been living in. The vigilante movie is a well-explored genre too, but Tsemberopoulos gives it a whole new urgency, subverting the cliched right-wing fantasy structure and seeing it through the eyes of a man who comes to find his real self while trying to live up to the (imagined) expectations of others. (Source: LFF programme)

The Enemy Within

107 mins | Drama, Thriller | Nov. 13, 2013

The Enemy Within
Revenge is a recurrent theme in thrillers, usually dispensed by action heroes with a well-stocked arsenal. But in Yorgos Tsemberopoulos’s nuanced moral maze the protagonist is the bookish Kostas (Manolis Mavromatakis), a suburban florist well versed in social and political theory, which he discusses at length with a local publican. But when his home is invaded by masked hoodlums, who bind his family and rape his teenage daughter, our everyman hero finds his intellectual stance untenable. Encouraged by his paranoid, militarist neighbour, Kostas decides to take the law into his own hands, and in doing so begins to understand – for the first time – the world he has been living in. The vigilante movie is a well-explored genre too, but Tsemberopoulos gives it a whole new urgency, subverting the cliched right-wing fantasy structure and seeing it through the eyes of a man who comes to find his real self while trying to live up to the (imagined) expectations of others. (Source: LFF programme)
IMDb rating 6.8
Producers Greek Film Centre, Hellenic Radio & Television, Blackbird Production, Filmiki Etairia, Nova
Original title Ο Εχθρός μου
Directors Janis Rafailidou, Chrisanthos Margonis, Katerina Barbatsalou, Giorgos Tsemperopoulos
Writers Yiannis Tsiros

Cast

Manolis Mavromatakis

as Kostas Stasinos / Father

Maria Zorba

as Rania Stasinou / Mother

Yiorgos Gallos

as Sotiris Logaras / Neighbor

Antonis Karistinos

as Achilleas / friend

Thanasis Papageorgiou

as Father in Law

Ariadni Kavalierou

as Louiza Stasinou / Daughter

Ilias Moulas

as Andreas Stasinos / Son

Vesela Kazakova

as Romanian Woman

Tudor Chirilă

as Romanian Man

Kostas Antalopoulos

as Police Officer

Nikos Dallas

as Police Interrogator (as Nikos Dalas)

Thanos Grammenos

as Uncle-Village

Anna Kalaitzidou

as Doctor

Frixos Manasakis

as Gang member

Konstantinos Moraitis

as Rapist (as Konstadinos Moraitis)

Yiannis Niarros

as Aris / Friend (as Giannis Niaros)

Kostis Savvidakis

as Neighbour