Poster of my presentation

Is Jesus Christ black?THAUMA(miracle)!!Friday 23 of June 3 a.m!!

CHARACTER - JOURNALIST

screenshot
journalist

konstantinos

That's the creator of "thauma"...

Summary

The film ‘miracle’ unfortunately is not a miracle. The title is ironic and satirizes a line of action that obligatorily follows a person who lives in this society. It is a situation that everyone who lives in this country has experienced one way or another. Eventually, the story talks about life in Greece in a special way.
They baptize you, they send you to school, then comes the army and generally you should follow a specific way of life. One that you cannot disobey. In the life of Greeks religion plays a fundamental role and Christianity in particular, since it is the official religion of the nation and plays a leading role in our lives. In substance, the film presents a modern medieval age through the technique of hagiography. This technique has not been used unedited. This means that the aesthetic base of this film is influenced by the basic principles of hagiography and doesn' t have all its characteristics. Elements that have been used, for example the opposite prospect or the light that is always directed towards the centre, have been used in order to make the-God-centered society of 2006 more evident.
The chromatic combinations are more intense in order to stress that it is the current society that we are dealing with and not a past one. The film ‘travels’ in two dimensions with digital cut-out technique(as long as animation is concerened). In this way the 2d medieval perception for the life is symbolized, which is the perception of modern Greeks in this ‘modern’ “europian” society. A society whose main axes are the good Christian citizen model and the propaganda against difference.
The television is also a mean to create consciences and has gained oa powerful place in Greek society. This is also the reason that it has taken part in this film. In this way its role is being mocked. This happens with the use of Christ in this scene, such a powerful personality, who presses charges against the priests who exploit him in the tv news. This is casual since whoever has a certain problem nowadays uses it (and is used ) by television to clear it up. But also the promotion of the song ‘XYNO” (I COME), that satirizes the musical standards in the country, that has intence sexistic content, it shows subculture that television promotes. ‘XYNO” is a mainstream song. The difference is that it is excessive (as long lyrics are concerned) since these songs usually have a sexual innuendo.
The school is an other “target” of this film and the reason is the knowledge it offers to children. This is the classic knowledge which leaves no space for children to develop other talents they might have. It is more over accidental the make that children with different perception and do not study or are uneasy are characterized as ‘bad’ students because they are not harmonised with the rules and are marginalized, whatever this may involve.
In the army, however, personal freedoms disappearre since obedience to ‘superiors’ is the basic rule, without right to free will.
The hero of the film is indeed an antihero since he has no interest. He is an observer of his own life and he doesn't react to anything.
The subject of the film is more of an accreditation than it is a story. It has a powerful dose of exaggeration but, still, it is not placed essentially in fantasy because some of these stories are real, but also these that are not, could be.
Humour is an element that animation uses continuously in order to transmit messages. This is also the reason that is also used in this film as for example in the first scene with the Virgin Mary that is presented with Christ in her embrace, through a clock on the wall and it has taken the place of a cuckoo clock. Christ and Virgin Mary ‘are presented’ in the daily conversations of persons for various aims and reasons. So the choice, of presenting them together in this scene tstems from the need to declare that for certain people they represent the beginning of all.
However exaggeration sometimes is part of reality as in the case of the miracle scene. The Saints dance in the rythm of the Savopoulos song ‘let the dance go on’, waving a Greek flag in their hands, right after the victory of the national team in the European championship. The surreal situation that I devised does not abstain a lot from reality. We should just recall the exaggeration by the media at that time and the equally excessive reaction of simple citizens feeling immoderately proud for something without substance.
To touch such a sensitive subject was a personal need, because we all live with it but almost no one reacts to it. This does not mean that everybody has to agree with me. My purpose is not to mock Christianity or anyone's personal beliefs. The church however “plays” an important role to ease the spirits and it practises psychological pressure via death, which is the biggest fear of all. My aim therefore is, a dadaistic statement, to taunt the course of life that ‘has been imposed’ without objections. Lastly, I would like to close with the lyrics from the song ‘Right in life’ by Stress (a Greek band), that I absolutely am expressed by and there is no reason to re-phrase it.
“Right in life

No in their course of life

Right in life

No in the institutions that they give us for life

I want to live as I want

No to survival as they want it

No to the way that they want it

I want to live as I want

I want to live as I want

i…i…i…”