Exotica, Erotica, Etc. (2015)

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Exotica, Erotica, Etc. (2015)

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"Sailors are like terrorists. They arrive in ports with a bomb called love and throw it. And do you know what happens? The bomb explodes when they go away and they never come back, destroying the hearts of all the girls in the neighborhood. How strange - To love somebody who pays you…"

The sound of the wind, waves lapping the shore, an engine throbbing, the sunset’s colors, a huge ship on a boundless ocean – why some men choose a life at sea is readily apparent to the viewer. "I wanted to penetrate the heart of the ocean," explains one sailor. The usually Greek and South American men alternate their lives onboard that are both exciting and mundane with visits to the women in bars. And then they quickly leave, for sorrow over a woman is out of the question. Once you start, it ruins everything: "Then every new destination loses its meaning." The men’s quest for freedom stands in marked contrast to the needs of the women who – sometimes after the first glance at their handsome sailor – devote their hearts to them. Sandy was once one of these ladies of the night. Now retired, she reminisces about her favorite Greeks with melancholy and unabashed desire, lying naked on her couch. “Rusty and damaged like an old ship,” as she puts it.

Greek-born, France-based visual artist Kranioti’s radical debut feature, which combines breathtaking seascapes, romance, ethnography, allegory, pyscho-poetry and frank sexuality to create an innovative kind of baroque, melodramatic nonfiction essay. Kranioti’s cinematographic eye and fondness for abruptly switching narrative and thematic gears make this a work of mesmeric beauty and thrilling structural freedom.

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Exotica, Erotica, Etc. (2015)

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