Berlin International Film Festival | 14 February

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-- The Forum
-- The Panorama

-- Retrospective
-- Kinderfilmfest
-- New German Films




Parallel: Peppermint

Peppermint

by Costas Kapakas

Fortyish, recently divorced aircraft engineer Stefanos buries himself in work to forget his basically non-existent private life. A phone call from long-lost school chum Manolis, inviting him to a party, shakes him out of his doldrums, triggering memories of his basically happy childhood, and particularly his cousin Marina.

Inseparable from an early age, their companionship develops into something deeper in adolescence, but their parents don't approve and Marina chooses another man. Stefanos eyes other girls, but has never completely got over Marina, even to this day.

Peppermint is a slyly funny coming-of-age story with charming performances, most notably Annie Loulou as Stefanos' sharp-tongued but loving mother and Giorgos Gerontikadis-Sempetadelis as 11-year-old Stefanos ­ if Al Pacino ever needs a young actor to portray him as a boy, intense-yet-sweet Gerontikadis-Sempetadelis should be on the short list.

Natalie Gravenor

Berlin 1999 - Berlin 98 - Berlin 97 - Berlin 96