Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

zografialep A very beautiful and moving film. Personally, despite the many mistakes I saw myself, I enjoyed it overall. There are beautiful costumes, amazing and fitting music, and in general good acting(though at some point the English of some Greeks sounded too 'accented' and it looked like they had trouble expressing themselves). The editing was a bit weird, and at some points the story was not explained quite well- I still don't understand how he contributed to the Revolution, though we can imagine he gave money. However, I was very happy it was filmed. The Greeks no longer produce much due to economical difficulties, and most importantly-for this case- they don't produce historical films.The only ones we can see are those from the 60'-70', and the quality is naturally bad. Historical films are always a bit inaccurate, but they are an incredible source of learning. We had a glimpse of what Greece after the Revolution was like, how was the civil war, the poverty, the British involvement. I knew these things from history books, but after this film I can picture it in my head, I have an idea of what Greece looked like at the end of the Ottoman era. It still might not be a perfect film, or even good for some, but for me it needed to be made.In order to create good things, we need to make a start. We cant say 'there's no money,we'll make a bad movie anyway so better leave it'. Even if it is a flawed movie due to the lack of funds, it is something,it is art. A beautiful film about an important part of our history.

olympicbird Against the criticism of hard nuclear people of art into the cinema theater's... This movies its a piece of art for the deepest meaning of freedom, of the real history, with excellent photography, scenario. For the cost of the creation of the movie.. you cant find nothing better into the cinema.. something else than to split the popcorn on to the floor. So.. this movie deserve congratulation for the result they create with that budget and the wonderful actors played they roles extremely nicely. I am wondering how people looking that movie depends the point of view. The point of history are annoying ? The point of the meaning are annoying? or the country are annoying.. Whatever the reason are.. I am a happy simple viewer without "special cinema knowledge" that brings me into an other era of real meanings of freedoms and life. Thanks for that.

moschoumargarita One of the best films I have seen in my life!! Congratulations to everyone involved!I found the direction wonderful, the costumes and sets were amazingly done and captured the era to a T!Sebastian Koch was immaculate in his role of Ioannis Varvakis. I believe it was one of his best roles of his career. Ivan's performance was exceptional, and Marisha Triantafyllidou as Varvakis' daughter really impressed me.As for the music, it was beautifully composed, it touched my heart deeply and it really filled up the film.

tinakewy God may love caviar but I did not love the film. I wanted to, desperately. I am Greek so I *really* wanted this to be an awesome, magical film... it wasn't.The story starts off great, as being told by Varvakis' loyal footman, on a sandy beach of Zakynthos (Zante), to a bunch of children. It starts like a beautiful fairytale, but gets confusing very quickly.It feels like there are 500 people being introduced into the film and we don't even get to get their names. There is zero, and I mean zero, depth to them. As a Greek, I recognized all the Greek actors, some of them pretty popular in Greece, who only got maybe 5 minutes of acting... some only 30 seconds on screen. We are never told who they are, why they are doing the things they are doing...Another issue I had was, that time was not acknowledged as passing. We see Varvakis who is dressed as a Cretan but we later find out by accident he was from the island of Psarra, getting introduced to his baby girl who is at the time less than a year old. Then then next solid time reference we get is, it is 10 years later in Russia. He doesn't appear aged one bit and his daughter appears all the way from Greece, but instead of the child being 11-12 years old, she looks to be about 30-ish (yet Varvakis is still the same, not a single gray hair, he could have posed as his wife).Another thing that struck me as odd was the choice of key actors... they were ugly. I am not used to seeing unattractive people on screen. No, I did not expect to see models but at least some sort of make-up, some sort of aesthetics... their looks made them uninteresting.Another thing is, there is no explaining of historical facts at all. For instance all the references to the Greek Revolution were only understood by the audience, because we are Greek and we have been taught our history in school. However when some history of Russia popped up during the film, we had no clue and no explanation was given. I imagine if this film makes it to an international audience, unless they are avid history buffs, they will be mystified as well. I imagine the film was intended to be presented to an international audience, because the lead is a German actor, and the whole thing is shot in English.There are positive aspects of the film as well. Sebastian Koch is absolutely magnificent in his role. He is very believable and convincing. So is Evgeniy Stychkin!! These two make the film barely watchable and bravo to them!! Another bravo to all the Greek actors, who for once!, learned their lines in English perfectly and with a good accent!!Taking into consideration all the biographical films I have seen, this attempt seems cheap and amateurish. The story was there, it was an interesting life but it felt half-baked and soulless. I did not connect with a single character except his footman (Evgeniy Stychkin). There was no drama, no thrill, no romance, no danger... it felt like reading the newspaper to me. The costumes were also very cheap, you could tell, there was no detailing.. they felt like Halloween costumes. However the sets were very nice!!In short, amateurish attempt, felt like reading a biography in Reader's Digest to me. I was left confused and in a blur about what had happened, the time line in which it happened and couldn't remember a single character from the dozens that were presented to us other than the two main ones...