Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Expected more

A Disappointing Continuation

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

(only contains spoilers of a general kind)Disturbing, intense and creepy, this film at one level is a fairly straightforward story of a man who travels to his father's homeland and discovers the skeletons in the closet. Ewen Leslie as the haunted son Isaac seeking to lay the ghost of his dad Vasili in the mountains of Greece, Martin Csokas as his corrupted brother Nico and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the face of all refugee boys everywhere all do a fine job, the cinematography, score and directing work together well to create a menacing and disorienting view of the seedier side of Europe. At another level, this film explores the moral complexities of the refugee crisis. The curse that seems to follow Vasili's family can be interpreted as the guilt that lurks behind every decision to turn your back on another human being in desperate straits. And how easy it is to do that, given their overwhelming need, their anonymity, their foreignness, and the sometimes bald ugliness of their desperation. This film takes you unflinchingly into the heart of this "blackness" that consumed the soul of Vasili and eventually his sons, it slaps you unapologetically in the face with it. Vasili himself is a refugee, fleeing the devastation of post war Greece to Australia. Perhaps there's no guilt like that of a refugee who has left others to perish. There's no light at the end of this film, which I think is particularly fitting because there is no easy answer to the desperation of the millions fleeing to Europe and scraping an existence in the decrepit slums and alleys of the grand old cities. Just as it has for thousands of years, the situation fosters prejudice, exploitation and cruelty on all sides. You will appreciate this film, if not enjoy it, if you are interested in what is, and always has been, one of the greatest social, moral and even spiritual challenges to the illusions of our comfortable and sheltered lives.

The first fiction feature film from Tony Krawitz (The Tall Man, etc), Dead Europe is an adaptation of the 2005 novel by Christos Tsoliakis (The Slap, etc). Following the suicide of his father, gay photographer Isaac (noted theatre actor Ewen Leslie)decides to return the ashes to his ancestral homeland in Greece. But his journey reveals some dark secrets about his father's history and a supposed curse. As he tries to unravel the dark and troubling secrets of his father's past life Isaac travels from Greece to Paris to Budapest. Isaac also meets the troubled Josef (Kodi Smit-McPhee), an illegal refugee in hiding, and tries to rescue him from his harsh environment. Isaac also catches up with his estranged brother Nico (Marton Csokas), and is drawn into an underworld of pornography and sex slavery. This is a bleak and dark vision of contemporary Europe in crisis. Dead Europe explores themes involving death, family secrets, the ghosts of the past shaping the present, the inherent racism and anti-Semitism of Europe, the nature of guilt, and the sins of the father being visited on the son. Krawitz brings an outsider's perspective to his vision of Europe, and shows us visions of cities that are rarely experienced by the average tourist. You can almost feel and smell the physical and moral decay of the place. This dark and disturbing drama has a suitably grimy visual surface and slowly mounting sense of dread. There are a couple of confronting scenes. Cinematographer Germain McMicking uses hand-held camera and works in close-up to disconcerting effect.

This film was a big disappointing treatment of the book of the same title. Dead Europe was a bleak, dense novel, almost hallucinogenic, but quite compelling. You were never quite sure whether to believe any of it, or where it's narrative was taking you (including some unpleasant areas of life). I guess I had hoped that the film might make some things clearer. However the film over-simplified the narrative, making it harder for the viewer to link the episodes, as well as robbing the characters of their motivations. One central episode of how the Jewish refugee, Elias, was betrayed and left to die by the protagonist's father (thereby originating the inherited curse) was merely told rather than shown. Perhaps the film's budget ran out? I have no complaint about the filming or acting.

One of two Australian made films I saw at the Sydney Film Festival, both of which were set in Europe. Ewan Leslie was very good in the lead role as was Marton Csokas in a minor role late in the film, but the same can not be said for the actress who played the main characters mother. She seemed very poorly cast (age wise) and did not give a very consistent performance, as scenes with her felt very uneven.The film was shot well and in places not often seen in predominately English language films and the first half really set up the mystery and thriller like aspect, but it was let down badly by a very poor last third as it fell into an incoherent confusing mess, but maybe that was intentional as the character fell into that cycle himself.It was just very meh.