“Murderer” – an intense story that highlights a global problem

Eva Nathena’s adaptation of “Murderess” stands out at the 29th Greek Film Festival as a moving 100-year-old women’s story that remains relevant even in modern times.

“Murderess” will have its Australian premiere in Sydney and Melbourne as part of the film festival, organised by the Greek Orthodox communities of New South Wales and Melbourne respectively.

The film will headline the Sydney film schedule at its new location at Palace Cinemas Moore Park on Saturday 19 October at 8.30pm.

The film, based on the famous novel of the same name by Greek writer Alexandros Papadiamantis, is set in rural Greece in the 1900s, where a devastating patriarchal society pushes women to the breaking point.

The heroine, played by actress Karyofyllia Karabeti, turns into a murderer in her tortuous quest to “liberate” young girls from their social destiny by committing femicide.

The film’s director, Eva Nathena, explained that she first read the original book when she was 16, as part of the school curriculum, and felt a strange/uncomfortable sympathy for the protagonist.

She admitted to finding it strange at the time, but understood more clearly after her mother revealed that she had received negative comments for giving birth to two girls.

Nathena said she experienced the phenomenon of intergenerational trauma when she heard her mother’s story.

“I felt that the heroine of Papadiamantis was not identifiable for her actions but for her trauma which was very similar to my mother’s,” she said. Neos Kosmos.

Nathena pointed out that the phenomenon depicted in the book and film occurred in Greece, motivated by the financial pressure imposed on poor parents by the ancient dowry law.

She said a letter was sent in 1836 by the municipality of Skopellos, the neighbouring island of Papadiamantis, to the government to abolish this law and thus put an end to the unreported murders of second and third-born girls whose parents were too poor to provide a dowry.

“This letter reveals that these murders took place in areas of Greece where this law was not formal and where the murderers could not be prosecuted even if the authorities were aware of them.”

Papadiamantis criticized this law in his book published about 60 years later, in the 1900s (the law remained in effect until 1983).

“Papadiamantis shows through the protagonist that society has created this law and that is why he describes his novel as a ‘social novel’,” the director said.

Nathena developed a deeper understanding of Murderess, and in 2009, she began learning and documenting everything she could about the book with the ultimate goal of making it into a film.

In 2021, after more than a decade without the project coming to fruition, they managed to get started.

“We decided to start this project without any direction or certainty that it would come to fruition. It was just an idea of ​​collaboration that seemed to concern more people than just us. I felt that it would be a good goal, a beautiful dream,” she said.

“It’s a global problem”

Nathena revealed that the film ends by mentioning statistics from official sources about the number of girls/women who have been killed due to gendercide.

“Official data indicate that until 1990, more than 100 million women were demographically absent. In 2013, the European Parliament estimated this figure at 200 million,” she said.

An estimated 40 million of these children come from China because of the one-child policy, showing that the phenomenon is still relevant.

“Papadiamantis brought out the need to see with sympathy what our ancestors went through,” Nathena said.

The director expressed her immense pleasure at seeing the film being successful and sought after abroad, stressing that the central themes are relevant around the world.

“This is a global issue that is not just about Greece. There are still ‘missing’ girls in India. I am always deeply satisfied and grateful that this film is being shown all over the world because it conveys this message,” she said.

Nathena said she was looking forward to coming to Australia for the film screening and highlighting these aspects of Greece’s social history.

“Frangoyannou is one of the most emblematic figures of Greek literature”

Karabeti stressed the immense honour she felt in bringing the protagonist of Alexandros Papadiamantis’ social novel “Murderess” to life on the big screen.

“Frangoyannou is one of the most emblematic figures of Greek literature, born from the pen of one of our most important writers,” Karabeti said. Neos Kosmos.

“Countless analyses and studies have been written about her all over the world, through the prism of sociology, criminology or psychoanalysis. It was a great honour for me to be invited to interpret them.”

The actress explained that the character has been distorted and impacted by the society she lives in and that she truly believes she is saving girls from the suffering they would encounter in life.

“She is physically and psychologically abused, even by her own mother, because she knows very well what it means to be a woman in this closed patriarchal society, where newborn girls are unwanted by their poor families who have to give them a dowry,” Karabeti said.

“In the confusion of her mind, she believes that she is fulfilling the will of God and that by dying she is freeing these little girls from the life of torture that awaits them.

She admitted it was a challenge to play the character, “entering the darkness of her soul every day and trying to find a balance between her horror, her tenderness and her despair.”

The actress said she was incredibly proud of the film and the overwhelmingly positive reception (critical and financial) it received, which sparked considerable interest in screening it overseas.

“Her participation in major festivals around the world… gives us the opportunity to spread the message against the mistreatment of women and gender discrimination to a wider audience,” she said.

“Our director Eva Nathena, myself and all our collaborators felt the need to talk about this huge problem and influence as many consciences as possible,” said the actress.