In the heightened world of Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou's debut, amnesia exists on a pandemic scale. Enough people have the affliction that the medical establishment has established a protocol designed to help unclaimed patients to reenter society by creating new memories.
When Aris (Aris Servetalis, a trained dancer who moves with Buster Keaton-like economy) wakes up after falling asleep on an Athens bus, he's forgotten everything about his life, so he ends up in the hospital. When no one claims him, doctors set him up with an apartment, a tape recorder, a Polaroid camera, a photo album, a set of clothes, and spending money. It's a pretty good deal—even if the pants are comically short.
An instructional cassette provides a set of tasks. When Aris finishes one, he takes a photo, adds it to the album, and moves on to the next. The tasks, which can be quite whimsical, grow in complexity. He doesn't necessarily follow them to the letter, but he takes the project seriously: he rides a borrowed bike, attends a costume party as an astronaut, and visits a strip club.
Along his travels, he meets fellow amnesiac Anna (Sofia Georgovassili) at a Texas Chain Saw Massacre screening. She asks him to take a picture of her, and a tentative friendship ensues. He isn't sure if she really likes him, or if she's just seeking assistance with her tasks, but he accompanies her on a trip to the country and to a bar where they dance to 1960s pop hits.
Things seem to be going well, except there are signs that something is off, like the time Aris recognizes a dog in the park, and then flees before the owner spots him, or when a merchant tells him that apples are good for the memory--and he switches to oranges. If Anna would like her old life back, Aris wants a brand-new one, until a particular task spurs him to reconsider.
Like the works of writer and director Charlie Kaufman, Apples combines real experiences with fictional science, but unlike Michel Gondry's The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Nikou depicts a less technologically advanced society, though the camera-and-photo-album combination operates like an analog version of Facebook or Instagram.
As he explains in the two interviews included with the Cohen Media Group's home-video release, one with Taika Waititi and the other with Cate Blanchett, Nikou got his start by working as an assistant director on Yorgos Lanthimos's Dogtooth and Richard Linklater's Greek-set Before Midnight.
These influences can be felt in Apples, which premiered at the 2020 Venice Film Festival. Though it lost the top prize to Nomadland, jury president Cate Blanchett was so impressed that she signed on to executive produce both Apples and Nikou's English-language follow-up. As consolation prizes go, the two-time Oscar winner's endorsement is hard to beat.
If the conclusion to Nikou's debut doesn't land as effectively as it could, he casts an enchanting spell through deft direction combined with Servetalis's consistently compelling performance.
What type of library programming could use this title?
Library programming focused on memory loss or the so-called Greek Weird Wave (Yorgos Lanthimos, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Argyris Papadimitropoulos, etc.) would find a fine example in Apples.
What kind of film collection would this title be suitable for?
A hybrid-genre film like Apples would be suitable for a variety of film collections in public libraries, including comedy, drama, and mystery.
What academic subjects would this film be suitable for?
Courses revolving around memory loss in narrative film could make excellent use of Apples, alongside complimentary features, such as Christopher Nolan's Memento and Paul Verhoeven's Philip K. Dick adaptation Total Recall.