BOOTLEG FILES 950: “Unorthodox” (2023 short by Greek filmmaker Konstantinos Antonopoulos).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It never received American commercial release.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It doesn’t seem likely.
One of the most disturbing films to be produced in recent years is “Unorthodox,” a short drama written and directed by the Greek filmmaker Konstantinos Antonopoulos. The film has not enjoyed a wide release, with screenings primarily limited to film festivals in Greece and in Greek-focused film festivals in other countries. That’s a shame because “Unorthodox” is the rare contemporary short film that challenges and provokes the viewer with a simple yet devastating story of cruelty taken to a fatal extreme.
“Unorthodox” takes place in Byzantium in the year 703 AD. A simple and gentle farmer named Prodromos was found guilty of blasphemy and is sentenced to spend 24 hours locked in a wooden pillory. Prodromos is genuinely unaware that he did anything wrong but submits to his punishment without protest.
The pillory is based in an open field, far from his village. A priest reads the charges brought against him while soldiers hammer the pillory shut, with Prodromos’ head and wrists locked within its boards. Prodromos’ hair and beard are clipped off and he is told that he will be released after the sunrise. He is left alone in open, immobilized in the pillory. The torture device is decorated with metallic bells that create an irritating noise in the wind.
When the morning comes, Prodromos’ captors are nowhere to be seen. Off in the distance, he views a family pulling a wagon and calls out to them, asking if they’ve seen the soldiers who are supposed to release him. They have, but the soldiers and the rest of the villagers have fled in advance of an invasion by Arab marauders. No one who placed Prodromos in the pillory remembered to release him.
Prodromos begs for the family to free him from his captivity. But they lack the tools to dismantle the pillory. However, an elderly woman within the traveling clan gives him water.
The day turns to evening and Prodromos stands stoically in his imprisoned state. An injured Arab invader finds him, but the two men do not share a common language. Prodromos tries to use the sound of gurgling water to signify his thirst while pointing his trapped hands to the places on the pillory that need to be unlocked. But the Arab is unable to break him out and leaves him alone in the dark.
In the following morning, there are pillars of smoke coming from the mountain range behind Prodromos. He is unable to see the smoke, but can smell it. To his horror, he views a flock of sheep racing past him, with some of the animals running while on fire. This is obviously the work of the invaders, and it is possible the sheep were from Prodromos’ farm.
The film ends with a group of small children playing around the pillory. It would seem that the terror from the invasion has passed. The children detach the bells from the pillory and the sandals from Prodromos’ lifeless feet. None of the children seem to care that there is a dead man locked in an immobile position within the pillory.
Hristos Sougaris plays Prodromos, and it is a remarkable performance. The actor undergoes a riot of emotions, from hope to fraying despair to the inevitable realization that he is doomed to die a slow and painful death. Giorgos Koutsaliaris’ eerie cinematography brilliantly captures the barren landscape that becomes home to Prodromos’ undeserving fate while Larry Gus’ score perfectly frames the sense of doom surrounding the condemned man.
Filmmaker Antonopoulos won several awards on the festival circuit with “Unorthodox,” but the film and its creator should have been according higher visibility. The work might have slipped into obscurity had it not been put forth on YouTube in the unlikeliest way – an unauthorized upload on a page run by someone with a pillory fetish. This version is not subtitled in English, but YouTube’s somewhat wobbly subtitling translation feature makes it easy to follow the story.
Hopefully, we’ll see a lot more from Antonopoulous. If “Unorthodox” is any indication, he has a great talent that requires attention.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.
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