The backwoods of Greece serve as the setting for the 2021 thriller Digger. Conflict oozes throughout the film, as father vs. son, father vs. the outside world, and various other showdowns permeate the film’s 101 minutes.
Shot with breathtaking precision by first-time filmmaker Georgis Grigorakis, we are first introduced to rugged, isolated farmer Nikitas (Vangelis Mourikis). He leads a simple life in a small cabin yet is almost swallowed whole by a mudslide after an intense rainstorm. The rain also delivers Nikitas’s estranged son Johnny (Argyris Pandazaras). Johnny comes with his recently deceased mother’s will, which entitles him to half of Nikitas’s property. An unseen construction company is also on Nikitas’s trail, wanting his land for their own uses.
Cue the tension. The conflict between father and son makes up the majority of the action here, and Mourikis and Pandazaras shine as two men struggling to see eye to eye. A romantic subplot occurs with Johnny and villager Mary (Sofia Kokkali), yet there’s no real tension or development there.
Digger is about man’s relationship with both the environment and family and you can almost sense Nikitas appreciates the land around him more than the son he hasn’t seen in decades. It is here the film draws its power. In the midst of two men trying to fend off corporations (Grigorakis makes it blatant this is a losing battle), you have two men trying to piece together a semblance of a life together, with mixed results.
This film would work well in academic libraries for students studying interpersonal relationships, environmental law, and agriculture.