06/07/2023 - Past? Present? Future? In Kyros Papavassiliou’s arthouse oddity, you get it all at once

Another day, another time-travelling arthouse curio with a limited budget. Kyros Papavassiliou – whose Embryo Larva Butterfly [+see also:
trailer
interview: Kyros Papavassiliou
film profile] has made it all the way to Karlovy Vary’s Proxima Competition – offers a take on the world that looks rather normal, or boring, even, except for one thing: when you wake up, you never know when you are.

According to its “arbitrary time”, any given day, you can be 14, then 34 or 64 years old. You can be with your husband, or maybe you have already divorced him. Papavassiliou’s characters, Penelope and Isidoros (Maria Apostolakea and Hristos Sougaris), still sleepy, have to figure it all out before their first cup of coffee. Pregnant? Present. Divorce? Future. And then they just go about their day because people get used to everything.

It’s actually quite entertaining, at least at first, when things aren’t too convoluted yet. How can you live your life not knowing where you will end up tomorrow, or with whom? How do you even develop as a person if one day is all you have in your current state? Seemingly interested in predestination, he also wonders what exactly would be the point of it all if people were making decisions based on what they saw in the future. There are many questions here, but not all of them will be answered, however, as Cypriot-born Papavassiliou is more interested in emotions than in elaborate sci-fi concepts.

That’s probably because there is something universal about this constant need to reassure one another. In a relationship, things change. Love can be in the past or it can be in the present; the only difference is that usually, you don’t say it aloud. At least not right away. It’s just a pity that once again, motherhood (or surrogate motherhood, to be exact) is what ultimately changes things for the female protagonist, even though she is reluctant at first (and pressured by Makis Papadimitriou, so fearless in Flux Gourmet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Peter Strickland
film profile]). Papavassiliou’s universe might be strange, with one woman able to “translate trees” and the Ministry of Lost Time causing further confusion, but there is something predictable about it, too.

Or something recognisable, sadly, because the haves are still in control over the have-nots. Money is scarce, and so are the options, so this couple on the verge of a breakdown will really try everything, in the hope that one of these days, they will look each other right in the eye and say: “Love? Present.”

Embryo Larva Butterfly was produced by Cyprus’s AMP Filmworks and co-produced by Greek outfit Graal. Its international sales are overseen by Cercamon.