Tale 52

Reality and delusion can no longer be distinguished from each other after seeing different versions of one and the same encounter between two lovers. Right from the start, it is clear that Tale 52 will put the perception of truth of both the protagonist and the viewer to the test. The spherical camerawork brings unsharp focus and fixes the mentally ill Iasonas from high camera angles like a plaything of a higher power. Gradually, this power seems to reside within himself rather than in the reality around him like an increasingly large festering wound that ensures hallucinations and confusing fears, but is that really the case?
With a fungus spreading on the ceiling of his bedroom as a leitmotiv, Iasonas repeatedly lives through his intimate encounter with the beautiful Penelope in a variety of different versions. The woman has been invited by his friends to a dinner organised by himself. They start a relationship and she moves in with him. Then she suddenly disappears. His attempts to reconstruct this moment truthfully turn out to be impossible because of schizophrenic fantasies. Despite his outspoken visual language, Alexis Alexiou leaves the viewer uncertain about the origins of the psychological and emotional suffering of the rather timid looking man. His feature debut turns into a psychological thriller without deliverance.