Chicago International Film Festival 2002 Nominated Gold Hugo Best Feature Penny Panayotopoulou (director)    Locarno International Film Festival 2002 Won Bronze Leopard Best Actor Yorgos Karayannis    Won Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention Penny Panayotopoulou  Nominated Golden Leopard Penny Panayotopoulou    Mons International Festival of Love Films 2003 Won Coup de Coeur Penny Panayotopoulou  Won RTBF Award Penny Panayotopoulou    Thessaloniki Film Festival 2002 Won Best Actor Christos Stergioglou  For Tha to metanioseis Won FIPRESCI Prize International Competition Penny Panayotopoulou  For its acute symbiosis of daily routine and metaphorical sense of life. Tied with  Výlet (... More Won Greek Competition Award Best Debut Director Penny Panayotopoulou  Tied with  Nikos Nikolaidis for O hamenos ta pairnei ola (2002). Won Hellenic Association of Film Critics Award Penny Panayotopoulou  For dealing with the subject of loss with a complex, infiltrating and direct manner combining her ...  More 2nd place Greek Competition Award Best Film Penny Panayotopoulou  Kostas Lambropoulos  CL Productions  Nominated Golden Alexander Penny Panayotopoulou

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Storyline
Elias is a 10 year old boy living in Athens with his family in 1969 and has an interest in Jules Verne''s stories and in astronomy. His father, with whom Elias has a strong relationship, is a travelling salesman and his absence affects the whole family. On the eve of his departure for a long business trip he promises his son that he''ll be back in time to watch the moon landing on TV together, but he is killed in a car accident. While Elias'' mother and his elder brother deal with the loss in their own way, Elias refuses to accept his father''s death. He creates an imaginary world, in which his father is alive. He shares fictitious stories with his friends, he sends letters to his grandmother on behalf of his father and he dreams of places like he did with him. Elias'' mother and his godfather, who do everything to bring him back to reality, take him to a summer house. On the night of the moon landing Elias meets his father in his own way and comes to terms with his loss.

User Reviews
one of the most beautiful and touching films I''ve ever seen.
23 December 2003 | by apple-human (manoftheworld)
don''t listen to stupid people that write stupid reviews ("littlesiddie: Absolutely nothing happens in this movie except actors trying, unsuccessfully, to pretend to have big, mostly sorrowful, emotions")

i just get so mad when people are idiots.

well littlesiddie, you might not realize but the work done with the boy on this film is far more than amazing. the acting is breathtaking. the imagination in the film making is nearly matched by the beauty of the photography. events are fresh and accurate at mastery level.

its the small details that still echo inside me even though months have passed since i saw it, truly an astonishing film.

i hold this movie as my filmmaking guide.

apple-human: religious filmmaker