Valse Sentimentale (2009)

Constantina Voulgariss first feature film is a delightful anomaly in contemporary cinema sort of like a Cat Power song Raw earnest melancholy awkward in parts razor sharp in others its lyrical yet with an undercutting touch of offbeat humor And more than anything its unapologetically a girls bedroom song an utterly sincere home movie Made with the evergenerous currency of a cast and crew of friends and the ample downtime that Greek summerinthecity affords when everybody else is sunning and hooking up out in the islands its a film about two exiles in Athens in summer in love A sentimental dance between a girl and a boy who could be stuck in downtown anyville yearning to be with each other but too cool to dare too chicken to admit it too clumsy not to step on each others Doc Martens and too damn sentimental not to surrender in the end to that oldfashioned thing called love