The film is composed of three love stories of different age groups, focusing on Greek society in the context of economic crisis and refugee issues .
The first story, boomerang .
One night, a Greek female college student Dafin was attacked by a group of refugees on her way home, and was almost raped. It happened that Faris, a boy passing by, rescued her. Daffin lost his mobile phone in a hasty escape. Faris is a Syrian refugee who came to Greece to escape the war. After he rescued Dafen, he found her mobile phone and kept thinking about her. One day, Faris and Daffin ran into each other on the street. Faris got on the bus and returned his phone to Daffin. Later, after several more contacts, the two fell in love with each other. They swim in the water together and camp in the wild together. They are learning each other's language. They ran together holding hands, like carefree children.
Faris also took Daffin to a mysterious treasure he discovered- an abandoned airplane . The two played together there and spent countless happy days. However, Daffin's father came from a Greek Nazi who strongly rejected refugees. On the street, facing Syrian refugees who were selling him boomerangs, he cursed. Secretly, the large-scale attacks they organized have caused the deaths of countless refugees. Of course Faris understands that staying in Greece for a long time is actually not safe, so he and his friends commissioned a "scalper", hoping to get political asylum in Canada. In the end, Faris chose to stay in Greece because of Dafin.
Two people's desperate love is enough to torture and cry countless single dogs. But just as they were in love, the Greek Nazis raided the hiding place of Syrian refugees near the airport. The two ran out following the crowd, and Daffin happened to ran into his father who had rushed to attack the refugees. The daughter was stunned for a while, with extremely complex emotions in her eyes.
The second story, 50 mg of antidepressant .
Joe Ges is the department manager of a multinational company in Greece. Due to the impact of the economic crisis, his career has been unsuccessful recently and his mood has been depressed. At the same time, the relationship between him and his wife also appeared. The two have been separated for more than half a year. But for the stability of the family and the child's childhood, Joe Ges did not choose to divorce his wife. Whenever his emotions were about to collapse, he would go to the pharmacy to buy 50 mg of antidepressant.
One night, while spending time in a bar, he happened to meet Alice, a Swedish woman who was on a business trip to Greece . There seemed to be a clash between them, but a strange chemical reaction took place. After that, the two of them ran out of firewood, and they were out of control. However, just when Jogos was about to hug Alice to sleep. Alice told Jogos apologetically that she might have to go because she was only used to sleeping alone. Maybe it was Joe Ges that moved his true feelings. After that, he came to see Alice again and again, and spent many wonderful nights with her.
Joe's company is experiencing the effects of the economic crisis and needs to lay off employees. He never expected that Alice was the supervisor who was transferred to take charge of the company's layoffs. In order to accomplish the tasks of her superiors, Alice must lay off 35 percent of the company 's employees . Such drastic measures are bound to have a huge impact on the company.
Joe's good friend Odyssey asked him for help, hoping to be transferred to Joe's department to reduce the chance of being laid off. However, when Joe Ges interceded with Alice, she was turned down. In the end, Odyssey was fired, and later he chose to commit suicide because of too much pressure. Joe Ges blamed himself very much.
But in fact, his own name also appeared on the list of layoffs, it is also difficult to protect himself. Alice, who was originally ruthless and strong, also developed feelings for him in the day-to-day contact with Joe Ges. In the end, she chose to leave because she couldn't bear to fire Joe Ges.
The third story, the second chance .
Sebastian is a 65-year-old German man. He had been teaching at the University of Munich before and recently retired. He planned to move to Greece for a day. He met a 55-year-old married woman, Maria , in front of the supermarket . Sebastian asked her to help pick up the shopping bags on the ground. His back was not so good that he couldn't bend over. The opening conversation between the two triggered a complaint from Maria.
As a resident of Greece, she is currently suffering from the impact of the economic crisis and cannot even afford a small tomato. Sebastian, who had never been married all his life, had an inexplicable affection for Maria at this time. He graciously invited Maria to go for coffee, and Maria changed the appointment to the same time next week because of something.
Soon, two people who spoke different languages and came from different countries got acquainted with each other day by day. Sebastian brings gifts to Maria on every date. Whether it is a little tomato full of love or a book that is very beneficial, the hearts of the two people are constantly getting closer. Sebastian wants to go on a date with Maria outside the supermarket, but Maria is afraid. But in Sebastian's view, falling in love means doing the craziest things together. So he asked Maria what she wanted to do most? Maria answered him.
That night, Sebastian bought the guards and sneaked into the supermarket with Maria. When Maria saw the lights in the supermarket lit up, she looked around in surprise, excited and ecstatic. After that, the two wandered together in the deserted supermarket. Maria whirled and danced happily. Sebastian offered a rose gentlemanly. He gave Maria a love novel called "Second Chance" and expressed his inner love to the other party.
If the movie was only shot here, it might be just three independent love stories. But the subsequent reversal took the story of the whole film to another level.
The girl in the first story, Dafin, was shot and killed by a Greek Nazi attack. And her mother is Maria. Maria’s son is Joe Ges. In this way, three love stories in the context of the economic crisis and refugee issues are intertwined in the same family . The director more or less wants to express the different perceptions and opinions of each generation about love through the film.
But at the same time, the ambition of the film is far more than that. The social issues that are reflected in the film from time to time are all deeply critical in the seemingly simple plot. Daffin's father's ruthless and aggressive attack on immigrants is a gloomy symbol of extreme xenophobia in a society. How does blind hostility and "killing" differ from dictators?
The layoff plan carried out by Alice as the supervisor in the company symbolizes the harsh and inhumane policies of the society in drastic reforms. When the layoffs crossed with the images of the German concentration camps, a curious sense of irony arose.
In addition, the family interwoven by these three loves is not a symbol of this country. It is dilapidated, decadent, and pretends to be beautiful and peaceful. Each of them is trying to escape, trying to find another hopeful vision of life . This is presented in three scenes in the film. The Syrian refugee Faris hopes to escape the suffering and fly to a happy and safe country. Therefore, the director asked him to express his inner desires through abandoned airplanes . The middle-aged man, Joe Ges, hopes to escape the family and live a life of freedom. Thus, the hotel became his temporary refuge. Here, he can be with Alice. And Maria naturally hopes to escape her eccentric Nazi husband and stay away from the marriage that gradually numbs herself. In the end, the supermarket freed her body and mind.
The film tells the story of three appears to be a love story, but many elements cleverly integrated into it, such as conflict and integration of multi-cultural and political realities of satire and criticism , and so on. It can be said that this film is definitely a rare love movie that can connect love and reality so closely . It even tries to metaphor reality with love, and reality in turn affects the direction and context of love.
"Love is a war with no chance of winning."
In the film, the mythical story of Eros and the funeral of the Syrians run through three love stories at the same time. What the director wants to convey seems to be the two important propositions of love and death that lie in human society. Especially love, a sentence by Sebastian may be regarded as the main theme of the film. "We looked very different at first, but when we fell in love, we became very similar."
So at the end, when Faris cried bitterly about Daffin's death, when Alice was sad because he had left Jogos, and when Sebastian saw Maria again after a year, she was delighted. These are the original appearance of love, they are both sprouted from reality, and not only dependent on reality. They are also full of the truest desires of every lover in the film——
When the world separates, please let us go through the suffering and meet again.
When the world separates, please let us embrace each other and be close to each other.
View more about Worlds Apart reviews
