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• Cineuropa
• trailer, 1 interview, 3 videos

Year of production : 2020

Director(s) : Christos NIKOU
Writer(s) : Christos NIKOU, Stavros RAPTIS
Cast : Aris SERVETALIS, Sofia GEORGOVASILI, Anna KALAITZIDOU, Argyris BAKIRTZIS

Producer(s) : Iraklis MAVROEIDIS (Boo Productions), Angelo VENETIS (Boo Productions), Nikos SMPILIRIS (Boo Productions), Aris DAGIOS (Boo Productions), Christos NIKOU (Boo Productions), Mariusz WŁODARSKI (Lava Films), Ales PAVLIN (Perfo Production), Andrej STRITOF (Perfo Production)

Seemingly contemporary but set somewhere outside of time, the story takes us to an Athens stricken by an epidemic of amnesia. In the hospital ward for people with memory disorders, Aris is number 14842. He left home one day and got on a bus. When he reached the terminal, he no longer knew who he was, where he lived, or what he had experienced in life—the only thing he could remember was the taste of apples. People like him are given a chance: they can create a new identity and new memories for themselves. Taken by the hand like a child, Aris truly returns to his childhood: he learns to ride a bicycle, goes to discos, hits on girls. He checks whether it’s possible to start again, to avoid the failures and the drama. Christos Nikou equips Aris with a tape recorder and a Polaroid, making the world of analog recording another protagonist—one that we have completely forgotten. The feeling of loss that permeates the film is akin to the melancholy of Charlie Kaufman’s work. But Apples also brings to mind afterimages of the Greek New Wave (Nikou was an assistant director on Dogtooth), with an undercurrent of Orwell’s Big Brother. Juxtaposing intimacy and flair, tenderness and distance, amnesia becomes both a personal drama and the choice of entire nations.