A Blast

The economic crisis is never far away in contemporary Greek cinema. Not surprisingly: the country has been hit extremely hard. Where other films often resort to metaphor, A Blast is explicit in its handling of the consequences of the financial malaise.
Maria (Angeliki Papoulia, seen previously in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth and Alps) puts her children in the car, drops them with her sister and leaves. What she is running from and what her plan is gradually become clear. The film shows non-chronologically that Maria’s seemingly pleasant life is built on sand. Her mother has a huge tax debt, her brother-in-law turns out to be a neo-Nazi and even her loving husband has skeletons in his closet.
The desperate rage with which Maria turns her life upside down is constantly palpable in this energetic second feature by Syllas Tzoumerkas. Intense sex scenes and emotional explosions make A Blast a daring, unpredictable drama.