NEW YORK – Renowned Greek actress Karyofyllia Karabeti, who stars as the title character in the film adaptation of Alexandros Papadiamantis’ iconic literary masterpiece ‘Fonissa’ (‘Murderess’), directed by Eva Nathena, will be attending the 14th New York City Greek Film Festival (NYCGFF) which begins on September 11.

Karabeti spoke with The National Herald about the special challenges – internal and external – of her transformation into the character of Hadoula Frangoyannou in the film, the film’s deeper message about the social inequalities that women continue to face, and the importance of her presence at the festival. Please note, for those unfamiliar with Papadiamantis’ story or who have yet to see the film, the following interview includes some spoilers.

TNH: Mrs. Karabeti, first of all we would like you to express your thoughts about the upcoming screening of ‘Fonissa’ at the 14th NYCGFF, as well as your own presence at the festival.

Karyofyllia Karabeti: The upcoming screening of ‘Fonissa’ at the NYCGFF is a great joy and honor for me, as well as for all the contributors of our film. After its huge artistic and box-office success in Greece, now, through these screenings at international festivals, the opportunity is given, both to the Greek community, and to a wider audience abroad, to watch these films, let alone in New York, where the Festival is of particular importance as a cultural bridge between Greece and America.

TNH: How big a challenge was it to embody Frangoyannou, one of the most sinister and reviled figures in Greek literature?

Karabeti: Frangoyannou is one of the most emblematic female figures in Greek literature, drawn from the pen of the great Alexandros Papadiamantis. Many studies, articles and analyses have been written worldwide about the novel, but also about the character of Frangoyannou, through different prisms: On a sociological, criminological level, as well as that of psychoanalysis. So to accept this offer to play her was a great honor for me, but also a huge challenge acting-wise. Previously reading the novel, I had been shocked by Frangoyannou’s crimes, horrified and disgusted by her dark personality. But when I was given the opportunity, through the film, to study her better, I understood something that I had not realized then at a younger age. That the moral author behind the actions of Frangoyannou is social violence, of which she is also a victim. So the bet for me and for our director, Eva Nathena, was, on the one hand, not to justify these acts, because they are abhorrent anyway, but, on the other hand, to let the world understand the circumstances that led to the formation of such a monster. Moreover, the film was made on the occasion of our need to talk about one of the huge issues of modern society – and especially after the coronavirus era – which is the explosive increase in femicides and in general the rates of female abuse and gender-based violence, wishing to bring this issue and have our own say in this public debate and put our concerns to society as a whole. I mean, starting from there, we wanted to make this movie. So what you said about me playing a hateful person, for me the goal was not to make her even more hateful, but to show the real culprit in the eyes of the viewer.

TNH: Who seems to not be Frangoyannou after all…

Karabeti: Frangoyannou is a woman who is living, around the year 1900 on a dystopian island in a closed patriarchal society, a very tortured life. She knows very well what it means to be a woman in such a society. She herself has been physically and mentally abused, even by her own mother. That is why, after all, the film places a lot of weight on the relationship with her mother. It is a ghost from the past which she always carries with her, in her thoughts. She therefore considers that by killing the little girls, she is actually fulfilling God’s will and that she is giving them a gift of love, because she is redeeming them, rather freeing them from the cruel life that awaits them. So, during the filming, it was very difficult for me to enter the darkness of her soul every day, but I had to find the balance between her cruelty, tenderness, and despair. And especially in the scenes of the murders, where I had to maintain a Doric composure, after “cut” was called, I would go to a corner by myself and sob, to get rid of all this horror and violence.

TNH: Given that the killing of young children is a heinous act, do you think that the audience – especially those not from Greece – can see the film from the perspective of its time?

Karabeti: I think that it is quite clear in the film, both the context in which Frangoyannou lives and acts, as well as her feelings. This need for escape, for freedom, in the film we see very strongly the abuse of women, either through the femicide committed by a man, or through the abortion assisted by Frangoyannou, who is also a midwife, or the men’s flight from the village, since her sons have gone abroad, looking for a better life, but they don’t really help financially either. And the men themselves are unhappy and oppressed in this terribly poor but also patriarchal society, because certain roles have been assigned to them which they are obliged to fulfill. A very poor father, who sees a second, third, or fourth girl coming into the world in his family, being obliged to provide all to marry them off, is unable to meet this request. So the easiest solution for him, unfortunately, is to give his license to some person who was responsible for drowning the baby girls, attributing the death to a sudden, normal event. After that, he was relieved of this huge obligation to raise a girl who would not be able to work, but would have to receive money and property from the already poor family, because that was the unwritten rules of the time. Of course, this father would not wish for this, to order the killing of his newborn child. He did it with great pain, great mental pain, but he was forced to do it. Unfortunately, the institution of the dowry was abolished by law only in 1983 and as early as 1836 we have a document, a written letter from the Skopelos mayor to the Secretariat of the Ministry of Justice, for its abolition, because they associated this law with “unacknowledged deaths of female infants.” In other words, these people are already telling us something that was a common secret. That these deaths were not accidental. Of course, they were not listened to, it took 150 years to abolish this institution by law, so you understand how many souls, how many baby girls were sacrificed because of this institution, this situation. Unfortunately even nowadays, all over the planet and in countries like China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc., now that technology helps families know the gender of the fetus, they proceed to selective abortion if the fetus is a little girl. In fact, in China, where there was the problem of overpopulation, families had to have only one child and when the fetus was a girl, they sacrificed it in order to have the much-desired boy. We had to do something through our art to talk about these huge social issues, too. Of course, we are not a threat to men either. What we are asking for is the much-desired equality in all areas. The women’s movement in recent decades has conquered many of the self-evident rights of women, through huge and multi-year struggles, of course, but, unfortunately, we see in the news reports and in the general social development how much we still have to do to achieve equality.

TNH: What do you think are the main areas where we still see this inequality?

Karabeti: There are still huge differences in pay, while a small percentage of women are active in the political scene and in the professional arena in general. Also, from the general treatment in the media and social media, one can see how widespread sexism is against women and, further, of course, ageism, gossip because of their appearance, sexual behavior or clothing. We even saw it against Prime Ministers of countries like the previous Prime Minister of Finland, a young woman, who was criticized for going to a party or dressing a certain way. This rarely happens to men who are in various political offices.

TNH: What was the process like making the film, given that you yourself are literally transformed?

Karabeti: As far as my role is concerned, there was an aging process requiring long hours of make-up. Of course, the face that appears on the screen is not the face that I have right now. Every day and before the ten-hour shooting, for reasons of saving time, beginning at dawn, the make-up team took around two and a half hours to transform me. Also, it took another hour and a half to get rid of that latex that was on my face, because it became one with my skin and required different products and a special make-up removal process. The filming took place in an abandoned village of Mountanistika in Mani, which Eva’s crew, she is also the set designer and costume designer of the film, had shaped in a way that looked inhabited, that is to say, wells and terraces were built as well as some demolished places in the village. So, the conditions were difficult in November 2022, since we were also faced with freezing winds, cold and rain. Nevertheless, our belief in what we were doing and our excitement because we understood that great work was being done, kept our morale high and we continued unswervingly, defying all these difficulties.

TNH: Do you think that Greek film festivals abroad ultimately contribute to the promotion of Greek films?

Karabeti: All these festivals contribute the most to the dissemination and familiarization of the foreign public with Greek cinema, which, after a very long period of time when it was limited to the Greek area, in recent years has been very successful. This success is demonstrated both at international festivals, where we have received many awards and Greek films by new filmmakers continue to be honored every year, while we have all followed the course of Yorgos Lanthimos and his enormous success. All these are very optimistic signs for the future of Greek cinema.

Many thanks to the New York City Greek Film Festival and the organizers, as well as other similar Greek film festivals where ‘Fonissa’ has been screened, such as Los Angeles in June, San Francisco which Eva went to earlier in April, London and elsewhere in Europe. In fact, the film won the director’s award at a purely international festival, the Shanghai Festival. This was a very great success for the film and for Eva Nathena. It was an international festival where it competed with very important foreign films. Especially in China, a discussion took place after the screening of the film where the statistics from the country were also given, people were shocked by what they heard.

If I’m not mistaken according to official data, within 20 years around 200 million women had disappeared from the world population and 40 million were from China alone. People were shocked by these facts. Our big thanks for the great honor and the great opportunity. We are very happy that we will be there in New York to see the reactions of both the Greek audience of the Omogenia and our foreign friends. There will also be a screening at the Maliotis Cultural Center in Boston where we spoke with the director, Chrysoula Kourkounti, while in October there will be a screening at the New York Greek Film Expo and in Canadian cities.