Greek director Christos Nikou announces himself as a director who is willing to look at the modern world through a playful, abstract lens with the release of Apples, a science fiction drama that considers the impact that long-term memory loss has on a person. He sets the story in an alternate reality in which a memory loss disease has spread throughout the world. The government has established a rehabilitation program that is intended to help victims of the disease but some individuals struggle to follow the guidelines put in place by those who run the medical facility.
I recently had the opportunity to chat with Nikou about his unique approach to directing the film and his beliefs on the purpose of allegorical storytelling.
The film tackles the potentially horrifying subject of a memory loss plague, but it deals with it in quite a playful and non-judgmental manner. How did you come upon the idea of tackling this subject in a way that didn’t lean into horror tropes?
I think that’s the easy way to approach it. I always believe that movies should not be only one thing. They should also combine comedic elements with more dramatic elements and, in general, films should be like life. Life is a mixture of different moments and different emotions. I love when movies create that cocktail of emotions for the audience and they can prompt you to laugh and cry at the same time. So we wanted to do something that looks a bit lighter without losing any of the depth that might be conveyed by a project with a more serious tone.
Apples is also set in an alternate reality in which technology has not progressed as far as it has in our modern world. Was that an attempt to comment on the role that technological advancements play in determining the way that modern society functions?
Somehow the way that we experience life today has been affected by our extensive use of technology. It has made our brains lazy in a way, as there is no reason to save information in one’s mind anymore. We can store our data on our devices and even when we want to go from one place to the other, we don’t remember or how we’re going to get there. Most of the time you use Google Maps to figure out where you need to go. I think we wanted to point out that technology aids the human desire to feel as though we have created the world around us. That is the technology that we are using is more analog than digital. I think it was easier to comment on this issue through the use of analog technology. We wanted to make a subtle comment, instead of making our points in a straightforward manner. One can convey a message in a slightly more abstract manner without losing the potency of the ideas that you’re playing around with.
The protagonist is a man who is trying to rebuild his identity after having all of his memories taken away from him. Was it challenging to tell a story from the perspective of a person who has completely lost their sense of self?
When we were writing the script, we were trying to create a character who is dealing with something different than what he initially appears to be suffering from. At the same time, he is entering into a program and trying to follow the rules that have been set by the government but he begins to feel as though he doesn’t belong in this world. They are trying to build a new life for him from scratch but he begins to question that mentality and wonders why he is choosing to join this program. The audience can develop their own interpretations of what happens to him at the end of the film because his emotional journey provokes them to ask questions about his position in the world.
I was fascinated by the fact that the film explores the limitations of the process that he goes through in his attempt to reconstruct his personality. Was it difficult to get the actors in the film to channel depression and emptiness in scenes that tackle this subject matter?
The way that the main actor worked was fairly unique. I asked him to watch a couple of Jacques Tati films and The Truman Show. I wanted him to somehow combine these two totally different approaches and create a character that appears to be dead inside. Here, he delivered a minimalistic performance and introduced a lot of subtlety into his interpretation of the role.
Are there any other directors that you drew inspiration from in determining what the tone of the film would be?
I found myself drawing inspiration from The Tenant and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I also appreciate Spike Jonze’s abilities as a world-builder and the simplicity of Robert Bresson’s directorial style. Another director that I love is Leos Carax, even though I don’t think that I reference his work in this film. I think that my influences do come through, even if they don’t necessarily emerge in an obvious manner.
You employed fairly gloomy visuals throughout the film. Did you deliberately shoot for a visual style that reflected the emotional impotence that the characters suffer from?
We wanted the color palette to reflect the visual effects produced by a Polaroid camera. The film is simultaneously colorful and gray. We wanted to capture the melancholic tone of the film and the melancholic mood of the main character.
It should also be noted that this is a film with a universal message, as it isn’t specifically tied to the cultural traditions that are found in Greece.
The only Greek thing in the film is the language and the locations. Even when we shot in Athens, we tried to make it look like a generic European city or a universal location that doesn’t really exist. People who have seen the film are likely to not actually recognize the version of Athens that we created. We wanted to give it this universal tone because the film deals with the topic of memory and should not be tied down to one specific place.
In a lot of ways, this feels like a deeply personal project. Did you feel as though you could relate to the feelings that the main character experiences?
In writing characters, I always try to make them alive and insert parts of my personality into their DNA. I have never lost my memory but this film tells an allegorical story, so it’s more about how the main character is trying to deal with a psychological disturbance. So it was somewhat similar to something that I have experienced in my life.
stay tuned for our review of Apples coming soon
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I am passionate about screwball comedies from the 1930s and certain actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I’ll aim to review new Netflix releases and write features, so expect a lot of romantic comedies and cult favourites.
