12/11/2012 - Thessaloniki Audience award winner Papadopoulos & Sons is a light and enjoyable comedy-drama

The feature debut of Greek director Marcus Markou, Papadopoulos & Sons [+see also:
trailer
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Directed and written by Markou and set entirely in the United Kingdom, Papadopoulos & Sons is an expat comedy-drama about a Greek family abroad. The clan is headed by Harry Papadopoulos (Stephen Dillane), a widower with three children: eldest son and nature-nut James (Frank Dillane); daughter Katie (Georgia Groome) and smart kid Theo (Thomas Underhill).

Harry is of humble origins but his business success, which includes a line of Greek foodstuffs sold in British supermarkets and the to-be-constructed Papadopoulos Plaza real-estate project in London, has set him on a path to glory. Until, that is, financing on the Plaza project falls through and the Papadopouloses are forced to move out of the family mansion. (Whether coincidental or not, there are clearly echoes of the current Greek economic crisis here.)

Harry's loose-cannon, former alcoholic brother, Spyros (Georges Corraface, great), is there to help and somewhat crazily suggests that they re-open the fish & chips shop that started their adventures in business in Britain but that has been closed for ages.

Though the screenplay reserves little in terms of narrative surprises, Markou has fun with the setup and with the actors, who are very convincing as a family, no-doubt aided by the actual father-son rapport of veteran actor Stephen and teenage son Frank Dillane (the latter's probably most famous for his appearance as Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince).

The film is sold internationally by U.K.-based Seven & Seven and was produced by Double M Films. It will be distributed in Greece by Hollywood Entertainment.