ATHENS — The film "Mila" (Apples) directed by Christos Nikou will represent Greece in the 93rd Oscars. The Culture Ministry chose the specific film by majority vote in the relevant committee for "its good photography, ecumenism and its timeliness".

The Ministry will ensure that the procedures for Greece's entry for the Oscars are completed on time, according to the rules of the US Film Academy.

SYNOPSIS

Amidst a worldwide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia, middle-aged Aris finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities. Prescribed daily tasks on cassette tapes so he can create new memories and document them on camera, Aris slides back into ordinary life, meeting Anna, a woman who is also in recovery.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

How selective is our memory? Do we remember what we have experienced or what we have chosen to remember? Can we forget the things that hurt us? Could it be that deep down we don’t want to forget painful experiences because without them we lose our existence? In the end, are we simply the sum of all those things we don’t forget? Mila, an allegorical comedy-drama, is in its core an effort to explore how our memory functions and how this affect us. How emotions affect our memory, and especially how our memory is affected by technology, which nowadays makes it very easy to record information. Could it be that all this advance in technology has made our brain “lazier” and thus we remember fewer and fewer events, fewer and fewer emotions? Could it be that we have ended up living “less”? The film is also about how we are dealing with the loss of our memory; the loss of our beloved ones, of our emotions. It is exciting, and in a way absurd, how quickly time passes from the moment we enter adulthood. My intention with this film is to create a familiar world in a recent past, in a society where technology is not so present. A society of lonely people where amnesia is spreading like a virus. Mila starts in a dystopian environment, but very soon shifts to a more anthropocentric approach. We shot the film to follow our main character with the camera in order to present his isolation within the narrow frame. To allow us to follow his emotions up close, we used the 4:3 aspect ratio, a format with a direct reference to a recent past which is clearly related to the polaroid photos that are a very significant element of the story.