‘Beachcomber’ review: ‘Dogtooth’ star Christos Passalis anchors enigmatic Greek coastal drama

Dir: Aristotelis Maragkos. Greece. 2025. 92mins

Elias, the protagonist of the drama Beachcomber, makes an attempt to construct a ship out of scrap steel as he tries to determine who he’s within the shadow of his sailor father, whose tales he typically tries to move off as his personal. Starring Dogtooth’s Christos Passalis and one in every of a number of Greek movies in Thessaloniki competitors, that is an bold and uneven work that’s greatest certified as a lyrical exploration of what drives an individual – even after they know that failure doubtless lies forward. It could command additional competition curiosity, however theatrically might have a more durable time touring past the Greek archipelago.

Passalis carries the movie with ease

The bearded, tattooed Elias (Passalis) is a fortysomething man with a darkish previous that most likely features a bout in jail – although, like a lot of the movie, which was co-written by director Aristotelis Maragkos (The Timekeepers of Eternity) and Chrysoula Korovesi, the precise particulars appear to be eternally simply out of attain. What’s clear is that Elias is part of a squalid seaside group the place he manages to seek out, with the assistance of some locals, a half-buried steel carcass of a Russian vessel that’s in a semi-reasonable state. As a result of it’s on an remoted stretch of seashore, it appears solely attainable the boat could possibly be repaired with out too many individuals noticing after which bought –  or, alternatively, used as a method of escape.

However in what’s a comparatively heavy metaphor, the boat is just a bit too cumbersome, and a bit of too removed from the precise water, to make this dream a straightforward actuality. Nonetheless, Elias recruits a few of his misfit acquaintances — none of whom appear to have any specific backstory, although all of them have nice faces — and likewise begins working at an area scrapyard. The latter offers him, not fairly legally, with the supplies and instruments he wants for his loopy endeavour. 

Passalis, who apart from Dogtooth might be greatest recognized internationally for his roles in Syllas Tzoumerkas movies Homeland (2010) and The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea (2019), cuts an imposing determine and is a suitably charismatic insurgent who carries the movie with ease. Elais’s physique, which he tattoos himself with varied sea-themed components, develop into a type of canvas on which to check out his father’s seafaring persona. That mentioned, the character’s inside struggles are extra typically inferred than clearly spelled out, making his psychological depths more durable to determine. 

Beachcomber was impressed by the poetry of Nikos Kavvadias, a symbolist sailor-poet who wrote about life at sea and in faraway ports as allegories for the will of individuals to flee their on a regular basis life. With this data in hand, the fragmented and allusive narrative is already considerably simpler to anchor, although audiences exterior of Greece will doubtless be much less acquainted with Kavvadias’s work. 

Extra common are the movie’s craft components. Technically, it is a fantastically atmospheric movie that mixes various kinds of footage strung collectively by editor Thodoris Armaos with a watch for emotion quite than narrative continuity. The battered manufacturing design by Stavros Liokalos clearly indicators that we’re about as distant from vacationer Greece as attainable, suggesting these areas are stagnant locations that most individuals can be determined to depart.