A man succumbs to an epidemic of amnesia and is assigned a series of
tasks to help him reintegrate into society.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Christos Nikou
Starring: Aris Servetalis, Sofia Georgovasili, Anna Kalaitzidou, Argiris Bakirtzis
I once spent a week confined to a hospital bed with a curious condition
that baffled doctors. While the puzzled, worried looks on the hospital
staff left me wondering if I was ever going see the outside world again,
on aggregate I enjoyed my time there. It was nice to get a week away
from a job I despised and to be looked after by others, as though I had
temporarily regressed to childhood, freed from any adult
responsibilities and concerns.
Aris (Aris Servetalis), the protagonist of
Christos Nikou's blackly comic pandemic drama Apples, finds himself in a similar situation. Waking up on a bus that has
reached the end of its line, Aris is unable to tell the driver at which
stop he had originally intended to disembark. It seems Aris is but the
latest victim of an epidemic of amnesia sweeping across Athens.
To cope with the epidemic, the authorities have set up special clinics
where victims are studied by doctors and asked to perform a variety of
memory tests. The hope is that family members will spot their loved
ones' mugshots on a database and pick them up, but nobody arrives to
claim Aris and so he is released into civilisation, given an apartment
and a set of tasks delivered on audio cassettes every few days.
These tasks begin simply enough – taking a ride on a bike, attending a
costume party, watching a horror movie at the cinema – but progress to
the absurd and intrusive, with Aris asked to drive a car until he
crashes it, grope a lap-dancer and befriend a dying man. All such tasks
must be documented through Polaroid pictures (the drama takes place in a
version of Athens that seems stuck in '90s fashion and
technology).
The drudgery of Aris's routine is broken up when he meets Anna (Sofia Georgovassili), a fellow amnesiac. The two team up to complete their tasks,
eventually leading to a romantic and ultimately sexual coupling. But
with Anna a few stages ahead of Aris in her tasks, the latter begins to
question their relationship. Does Anna have genuine feelings for him or
is she just using him as a way to complete her tasks more easily? Are
they both being manipulated by the health authorities, who are
attempting to mould them into some reductive idea of the average
well-rounded human?
[Mild spoilers to follow] While Aris
faces such questions, the viewer finds themselves querying the validity
of his condition. At one point a dog approaches Aris in a park and he
seems to know its name. When the animal's owner arrives, Aris
suspiciously does a runner. He also seems to know a lot of songs off by
heart. Most tellingly, Aris drops his habit of munching on apples when a
grocer remarks how the fruit can help with memory. Is Aris faking his
amnesia? Or does he genuinely have the condition but is unhappy with the
memories that are gradually returning, and the old life he may have to
revisit?
Nikou was formerly the assistant director to Yorgos Lanthimos, and on
the surface at least, Apples slots neatly into the
movement known as the Greek Weird Wave. It's heavy on the absurdism we
associate with the movement, but where it stands apart is in its lack of
cynicism. While they provide more than their share of laughs, GWW films
tend to leave you wanting a shower afterwards, such is their grim view
of humanity. Apples refreshingly mines such absurdism
while ultimately telling an optimistic story. It's a sort of reversal of
the Pinocchio fable, with Aris a "real boy" who opts to become a puppet
to avoid the sort of pain life can often inflict on us.
The titular fruit has proven a metaphor for sentience ever since Adam
took a bite out of one in the garden of Eden. Is it better to remain
innocent and free of hurt or to embrace the sometimes unfair balance of
pain and pleasure that makes up a life? Apples suggests
that no matter how rotten things may seem, there's always a fresh apple
left in the bowl. Go on, take a bite.
Apples is on MUBI UK now.
