How far can oppression and despair push the human psyche? Eva Nathena’s debut feature film is an adaptation of arguably the most iconic novel in Greek literature: The Murderess (1903) by Alexandros Papadiamantis (1851 – 1911), one of the country’s most influential writers. Murderess (2023), set in early-20th century rural Greece, follows Hadoula, a mother, grandmother and midwife, as she tries to cope against an oppressive patriarchal society.
An impressive production with a stellar cast, starring Karyofyllia Karabeti in a tour-de-force performance as Hadoula, Murderess has won multiple awards and distinctions at international festivals, including six awards at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Media Choice Award for Filmmaker at the Shanghai International Film Festival and five awards and 11 nominations at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards, while it continues to be screened and distinguished at film festivals worldwide. Most importantly, Murderess has been chosen as Greece’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Eva Nathena was born in Crete. She graduated from the Athens School of Fine Arts, where she studied painting under Chronis Botsoglou and set design under Yannis Ziakas. Already as a student, she was an assistant to prominent costume and set designer Dionysis Fotopoulos, gaining experience in film and theater by his side. In her long career in theater, she has designed sets and costumes for over 150 productions, from works by classical and contemporary playwrights to ancient Greek tragedies presented at Epidaurus and other ancient theaters. She has collaborated with important Greek directors including Giorgos Michaelides, Maya Lyberopoulou, Michail Marmarinos, Vaggelis Theodoropoulos, Nikos Mastorakis, Dimitris Kourtakis and Roula Pateraki.
In cinema, she has worked in 19 films, also with prominent directors, and has won the award for Best Costume Design at the Greek State Film Awards three times, for her work in Panayiotis Portokalakis’ Playing Parts (2003), Pantelis Voulgaris’ Brides (2004) and Costas Kapakas’ Uranya (2006). Her collaboration with legendary director Costa-Gavras in the production All Around is Light, presented at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, is a landmark in her career.
Nathena’s first work as a filmmaker was the short film Antigone (2022), before directing the Murderess the following year.
Greek News Agenda spoke* with Eva Nathena on her film, her perception of Papadiamantis’ messages and the experiences that have influenced her work.
What prompted you to adapt this particular work by Papadiamantis? Was it its literary value and its prominent place in Greek literature, or the sensitive subject it touches on?
Its literary value and its prominent place had in fact always made me face it with awe and dread; what actually helped me overcome this fear was my need to understand, first, and then try to convey, what it is that Papadiamantis was writing about, as I personally felt it, and which truly spoke to my heart.
In the novel, the author focuses on the economic aspects of the position of women in traditional societies, with particular emphasis on the institution of dowry. You, however, choose to focus more on the issue of gender violence.
But violence is also the result of thinking of women as lesser; and it has been so for centuries. This berating began in antiquity; in the “Golden Age of Pericles”, men voted for a law which stipulated that a man / husband directly acquires his wife’s property that was given as dowry. Let’s say that this law set a bad precedent that eventually led to this dark chapter in History.
Papadiamantis created a symbolic narrative, saying that society (personified in his heroine, Hadoula) was killing its children. In fact, he goes beyond that: he explains the reasons that lead to this act. He does not justify it, but he details the motivations behind it in psychiatric accuracy, describing what experts today define as “intergenerational trauma”, and which is the cause of suffering in our times.
Why did you choose to reverse the order of the murders in the story?
Because, in literature, a climactic, irreparable act can be placed early in the narrative and still have the story unfold and reach closure, keeping the reader engaged. But in cinema this cannot be done – it would mean the end of the film. Every medium & every form of art has its own rules.
Would you say you empathize / sympathize more with the main character than does the narrator in the book?
I followed the author’s lead in this; but, inevitably, through my own filter, created by my own experiences. You know, seeing clearly what this charitably prophetic writer told us 120 years ago is something that surpasses me, personally. And understanding the reasons that lead humans to extremes is like a life lesson.
The novel takes place in Skiathos, the author’s native island. You, however, chose the distinctive landscape of Mani for the filming of the movie. What influenced your choice?
Music and painting, which I studied, in that order, are the two arts that have driven my thinking and my work in any setting – not just this film. Started from the author’s formal language, I began recording the sonic landscapes that would evolve to visual landscapes. These sketches illustrated both inside & outside of me, this particular landscape of Mani & Crete.
At the first reading of the script, I told my co-workers: the formal language of Papadiamantis will be the camera in our film. So you can imagine how surprised I was -pleasantly surprised- when halfway through the rehearsals, I came upon Elytis’ book The Magic of Papadiamantis and read the passage: “…as for Papadiamantis’ formal language, only a camera lens, which had yet to be invented, could capture its power & richness”..!
In our film, the camera lens “translated” the writer’s language; as a visual artist, this was a risk I took, but also a deep satisfaction I gained when I saw how well it worked.
Your film has a very impressive cast of actors, with Karyofyllia Karabeti at its heart. To what extent would you say that this film is also “their film“?
It is our film, it belongs to all of us! I never claimed paternity or maternity – and anyone who does so in collaborative art forms, such as theater or cinema, is naive. Even the actors who appeared onscreen for just one minute, for that minute, carried the film on their shoulders, and I find that unique. Precious. Karyofyllia outdid herself, but, believe me, everyone gave body and soul. I am grateful.
*Interview by Nefeli Mosaidi. Photos courtesy of Eva Nathena. Intro photo by Marilena Anastasiadou.
TAGS: GREEK FILMS | LITERATURE & BOOKS
