Apples

2020 ‘Μήλα’ Directed by Christos Nikou

Aris, a solitary man in his late thirties, becomes a victim of an unexplained surge of memory loss disorders in his city and is forced to confront his severe amnesia through an experimental new treatment.

Aris Servetalis Sofia Georgovassili Anna Kalaitzidou Argyris Bakirtzis Kostas Laskos Costas Xikominos Alexandra Aidini

Alternative Title

Mila

comedy drama

91 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by ˗ˏˋ Liam ˊˎ˗ ★★★★ 3

don't you just love it when a film turns out to be as good as its poster
Review by davidehrlich ★★★ 1

Pandemics come in a handful of different varieties — some we accurately diagnose, and some we don’t even notice. A highly contagious outbreak of coronavirus (to pick a random example) leaves behind a trail of bodies that makes it rather easy for right-thinking people to recognize the disease for what it is. Other global health crises, however, can be harder to spot. The ones that poison our mental health. The ones that disguise themselves as progress. The ones that seduce us into forgetting who we are.
Set in an analog and uncertain version of the recent past (or perhaps in a parallel universe where the iPhone was never invented), Christos Nikou’s “Apples” begins in the midst of a slow-rolling plague…
Review by Lucy ★★★½

AFI 2020: film #14
“a lot of people have forgotten”
i thought i was ready for whatever this threw at me, but somehow wasn’t expecting a subtle character study. it feels like a yorgos, but with a much lighter touch, more reminiscent of alps than anything else. i was fully engaged with it all, but it still didn’t give me enough, ending as simply as it began. i dig this concept more than i love the outcome
(i do have to add that the titanic reference made me yelp because of how some of the dialogue is phrased: “i cried my eyes out the other day. have you seen this movie?”)
Review by Jack ★★★½ 4

Christos Nikou’s debut feature, Apples, is a deadpan yet delightful rumination on memory and identity. It has that austere dryness of a Lanthimos film and the absurd existentialism of Kaufman; cleverly inflicting a sense of eerie banality only elevated by the film’s 4:3 aspect ratio. It’s a very promising debut coming from a strong, fresh voice within Greek cinema, and I’m excited to see what Nikou does next.
Review by john ★★★

boy does the title deliver
Review by Owen ★★★½ 3

more films shot in the 4:3 aspect ratio please! also this has one of the best posters of the year
Review by Matt ★★★★★ 2

السينما اليونانية لا مثيل لها أبدًا، هذه قاعدة عندي وإن كانت إنتاجاتهم ليست كثيرة بما يكفي. في هذا العمل الأفضل في 2020 بلا شك ومن أحد تلاميذ لانثيموس، يناقش الحالة البشرية والذكريات ومعضلتنا الأبدية مع رحلينا التحمي بشكل جميل ومؤثر جدًا. ترجمة الفيلم قبل مشاهدته والحوارات أثرت فيني بشكل كبير.
ترجمتي للفيلم: subscene.com/subtitles/apples/arabic/2367770
Review by Matt Neglia ★★★½ 2

APPLES, the directorial debut from Yorgos Lanthimos protege Christos Nikou, is a strange, dry & somber look at memory & identity in a world where a pandemic is inflicting people with amnesia. Its disconnected yet haunting style displays a vision fueled by thought & confidence.
Review by Brian Tallerico ★★★★ 3

How you like dem Apples?!?!?
Sorry. This is pretty good, by the way.
Review by Vince The Cinephile ★★

Greece’s submission to the 2021 Oscars for Best International Feature is a somber, but soulless evocation of memory and loss in Christos Nikou’s directorial debut Apples. It’s worth noting that Nikou has worked with fellow Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos as the film feels Lanthimosian in its deadpan structure and weird thematic content. But what it lacks is the haunting quality that speaks within Lanthimos’ works. Apples is very much like a rushed concept that isn’t fleshed out efficiently. The film follows a man who got afflicted by an amnesia virus and turns to reprogram his entire brain with new memories and experiences. The idea is quite promising in itself, however Nikou have all these things up in the air without much care for an audience to understand what’s happening. Thus, the viewing feels insipid, and insignificant.
Review by Jacob ★★★½ 2

AFI Fest 2020: Movie #18
"It's difficult to be alone, without an identity."
A fantastic concept executed well, albeit a little too delicately. Apples wastes no time explaining how this wave of amnesia came about or why, and opts instead to only give us the essential pieces as quickly as possible. The pacing of the first act made it the strongest to me, though the budding relationship in the second engaged me similarly. I was trying to figure out the whole time where this story would take me, and ultimately, I was let down by how small and immediate the result is. Despite the high-concept premise, this is a relatively low-stakes character drama at the end of the day. The…
Review by Sarah🖼️🔥 ★★★★

damn these Apple ads are getting pretty weird

Recent reviews

Review by 𝕛𝕒𝕔𝕜 ★★★★

The comparisons to Yorgos Lanthimos’ work this appears to be getting are a little annoying to me, perhaps because I’m not always sold on his films in the first place. It has vaguely similar “deadpan” performances but fundamentally Lanthimos’ style is cold and inhuman, whereas this is warm and strangely soulful; the characters here are not dead automatons, they’re just a little lost and awkward in a charming sort of way. I’d be quicker to compare it to Spike Jonze’s “Her” than any of Lanthimos’ films.
On its own it stands as a unique and melancholy take on memory, loneliness and grief with a very comforting aesthetic - utilising soft light on film, 4:3 aspect ratio and nostalgia-tinged analogue technology. Overall, less about its admittedly intriguing concept and more about its central character and his act of forgetting.
Review by Logan ★★★

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL - FILM #6
I don't think I fully loved this as much as I wanted to. It does have that distinct, off kilter Lanthimos vibe, but nowhere near as extreme. I do think having that detached energy really benefits the story it wants to tell, but sometimes that comes at the cost of me not feeling super invested in it's characters and world. It's exploration of identity, memories and how we experience the world is interesting, but not fully explored enough.
I still think it's really fascinating and has some great moments, but like maybe it just wasn't what I expected. Might grow on me later on
Review by Bradley Fielding ★★★★★

In Greece during the late 2000s, an unorthodox cinematic movement ignited in the wake of the country’s financial crisis. Coined as “Greek Weird Wave”, the characteristics of these “weird” films were the strange and perverse narratives, unusual imagery and unsubtle undertones that reflected upon the country’s instability and decaying society.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the poster boy of this subgenre is Yorgos Lanthimos. With his earliest works such as Kinetta, Dogtooth and Alps taking inspiration from the country’s collapse, Lanthimos helped create a niche brand of bizarro independently-made films.
The distinctiveness of Lanthimos’ films helped skyrocket his filmmaking career into the stratosphere. Dogtooth won the Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for…
Review by Ian Floodgate ★★★★

While some people might be craving a return to “normal life” with a potential end to the COVID-19 pandemic visible, other people might question what “normal life” is. Coronavirus is likely to change some of our daily habits, like our cleanliness. However, most of us are unlikely to change how we use technology because it has not been directly affected. Nevertheless, because of the harm social media can cause, which is part of our so-called “normal life”, it may be seen as an epidemic itself, and indeed the lasting consequences of this pandemic and social media’s role in it are troubling. This pandemic has also raised further awareness of mental health, with many people struggling to cope with isolation and…
Review by Deniz İdil

It turned out to be sadder than I've thought. Sponsored by Polaroid.
Review by Charles Dundas ★★★½

Glasgow Film Festival 2021
A quiet little fantasy film about a world in which amnesiacs are trained to build new lives for themselves in a fictional contemporary Athens of polaroid cameras and reel to reel tape recorders.
Review by aaron ★★★★ 2

can we discuss this sexy poster and aspect ratio though !!!
Review by mkc ★★★★

Aye it was good
(This film is about a man who loses his memory and eats a lot, and I mean A LOT, of fucking apples. It really lives up to its title.
Aside from that, it’s quite a quiet film with an interesting concept and lovely visuals. The lead performance from Aris Servetalis is great, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a film before and honestly he’s great in this and now I want to find more of his films. This is also the debut feature of Christos Nikou, I’m excited to see what else he does too.
I’d also like to give a special mention to the poster of this film, like this is one of the best posters I’ve ever seen, I need more films to have posters like this.)
Review by TheoFIF ★★★½

While it does not fully deliver on the premise, this is a quirky but thoughtful Greek drama about a man who finds himself as a victim of a mass pandemic where everyone suffers from mass amnesia and enters a recovery program to create a new identity. Comparisons to Yorgos Lanthimos’s work will be mentioned, especially the dead pan humour, but I was more reminded of David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense in regards to the pandemic setting. Like Ewan McGregor and Eva Green, we watch Aris adjust to each new scenario as he rediscover himself piece by piece whilst taking a variety of Polaroid pictures. Sometimes, the deliberate dead-pan approach is rather cold towards the emotive arc and the conclusion tries too hard to wrap it up neatly, but director Christos Nikou always gives the characters enough compassion and empathy so we care about their journey and dilemmas. A solid debut feature.
Review by bettie_w ★★★

It’s easy to compare this to the work of our lord and saviour Yorgos, but I do think it does it’s own thing and is an interesting debut in its own right. It has such a calming melancholy at its core (🤪🤪🤪) and, considering it was made pre pandemic, it feels pretty apt in these times.
Review by delilia ★★★★

izlerken elma yedim hafızam güçlensin de bu filmi unutmayayım diye
Review by Kevin Lloyd ★★★½

Mass amnesia might be particularly relevant to a Greece scarred by the sudden descent into a decade of extreme economic hardship. Those afflicted are introduced to a state sponsored analogue world in which polaroids and cassette tapes are the means of generating memories for a new identity. Yet some instinctual reflexes remain, like eating apples, and higher memories can return too, triggered by life events. Ultimately, we are not automata to be simply reprogrammed. A quietly droll affirmation of being human.