ADVENTURE/DRAMA
GOD LOVES CAVIAR
God Loves Caviar is the compelling story of IOANNIS VARVAKIS, and his journey from humble Greek pirate to international caviar millionaire, with the ear of Catherine the Great of Russia. His wealth and power, however, do not give him contentment, and his boundless ambition only brings suffering, until he gives everything away, including himself, in the name of love.
This epic tale, based on Varvakis’ real life, moves from the Greek island of Psara to the court of Catherine the Great in Russia and the shores of the Caspian Sea, and then back to Greece, a country torn by civil war and the fight for independence, during the Revolution of 1821 against the Ottoman Empire.
God Loves Caviar features larger than life real personalities and colourful characters; dramatic events which changed history; success, failure, suffering and elation; spectacle, suspense and poetry.
How can we tell the story of a man’s life? What makes a hero? What makes a good person? Do we choose our own path in life or is a higher power guiding our steps? And can any one of us ever truly be free?
PRODUCTION: ALEXANDROS FILM Co. Ltd
ΕΤΟΣ 2012
Format : 35mm, colour, 93 min.
CREDITS
| Director | Iannis Smaragdis |
| Producer | Eleni Smaragdi |
| Script | Iannis Smaragdis |
| Jackie Pavlenko | |
| Panayotis Paschidis | |
| Vladimir Valutsky | |
| Story | Iannis Smaragdis |
| Music | Minos Matsas |
| Director Of Photography | Aris Stavrou |
| Production Designer-Art Director | Nikos Petropoulos |
| Costume Designer | Lala Huete |
| Editor | Giorgos Mavropsaridis |
| Sound | Marinos Athanasopoulos |
| Starring | Sebastian Koch as Ioannis Varvakis |
| Evgeny Stychkin as Ivan | |
| Juan Diego Botto as Lefentarios | |
| Olga Sutulova as Helena | |
| Lakis Lazopoulos as The Fisherman Of God | |
| Marisha Triantafillidou as Maria | |
| Akis Sakellariou as Kimon | |
| Catherine Deneuve as Catherine The Great | |
| John Cleese as McCORMICK |
| Co-Producers | STELLA STUDIO |
| GREEN DRAGON | |
| GREEK FILM CENTER | |
| K.Arvanitis S.A. | |
| VARVAKIS FOUNDATION | |
| NOVA | |
| Sponsors | COSTA NAVARINO |
| OPAP | |
| AEGEAN AIR | |
| HERTZ | |
| With the support of MEDIA PROGRAMME | |
AWARDS / FESTIVALS
FESTIVALS
- Official Participation at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival
- Official Participation at the 2013 Shanghai International Film Festival
- Official Participation at the 2013 Guadalajara International Film Festival
AWARDS
- Giuseppe Sciacca Award for actress Olga Sutulova
REVIEWS
- “The film GOD LOVES CAVIAR about Greek benefactor Ioannis Varvakis looks like the enigmatic male figure that is created by the incomparable Leonardo da Vinci: St. John the Baptist who, although eternal darkness envelops him like a deathly shroud, is radiant and smiling, with one hand on his heart while the other, the right one, points up, to the sky… But isn’t this the ingredient which is so obviously and distressfully missing from contemporary cinema? The creator’s regard towards the vital source… The divine. Nowadays, there are many master directors-poets of decadence who are very interesting cinematically, because they imprint on celluloid the decomposition that is dominant all around us. But dissolution demands synthesis. And this is the problem of art today. That all of a sudden lost its belief in synthesis and principally in beauty. Modern art looks only inwardly where there is nothing to be found but ruins, the mirror of our world: everyone wants to descend into the realm of the mother, of the primordial womb, of the darkness, without possessing Faust’s key. I do believe that the destination of the artist –and also of human being– is to try to get hold of a key and to open closed doors with it. Ancient Greek tragic poets, Plato, Shakespeare, Goethe, Jung, Kubrick, and many more achieved that goal. But one of our contemporary Greek directors, Iannis Smaragdis, has succeeded it too, as at the end of his film it is the children that hold the keys, it is lost innocence that opens the door of prison and leads the hero to freedom…”
Mimis Tsakoniatis – Film Critic, Cinema Theoretician
GALLERY