12/07/2017 - The Berlin contender will scout locations in October, aiming for a spring 2018 shoot for his fifth feature

Returning from a short stage-directing break, acclaimed Greco-Cypriot director Yiannis Economides will be following up on his 2014 Berlinale contender Stratos [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Yannis Economides
film profile] by breaking out of his usual bleak form for what he dubs his most romantic film yet: the Greek-German-French-Cypriot co-production The Ballad of a Pierced Heart, which will reunite him with regular collaborators Yiannis Tsortekis, Stathis Stamoulakatos and Vaggelis Mourikis, as well as his recent muse, Vicky Papadopoulou.

Co-penned by the director, his Stratos collaborator Harry Lagousis and the author of recent publishing sensation Giak, Dimosthenis Papamarkos, the film will follow a series of tangled love stories that start off with a domestic misdemeanour and climax in a frenetic familial drama bordering on flat-out comedy, peppered with the director's unique sense of pitch-black humour.

“It's going to be a black comedy about Greek suburbia,” Economides tells Cineuropa, adding, “It will primarily be a humorous affair in the vein of the Coen brothers.” Tight-lipped about the film's plot, he only mentions that “guns and blood are going to be just as involved as broken hearts and manic laughs”, describing the story as one about “couples suffering from a whole lot of love – an overload of it, actually”. He also states that it will employ his trademark realistic approach and unrelenting character anatomy. 

A director known for his distinctive use of tight urban spaces, this will be Economides' first foray beyond the Athenian landscape: the film is planned to be shot in the rural area of Lamia, thus inaugurating the co-operation between the municipality's regional film office and the central government's Hellenic Film Office.