Tetarti (Wednesday) 04:45

A Greek jazz club owner faces ruin in Alexis Alexiou’s Tetarti 04:45, a thriller with elements of neo-noir. It is set in the winter of 2010, during one of the gravest times of the economic crisis; featuring great acting, a solid script and impressive night time cinematography, it is exciting and entertaining until the very end.

Athens club owner Stelios (Stelios Mainas) faces disaster as his business is failing to generate enough customers to stay afloat. To make matters worse, the Romanian loan shark and mafia boss he owes is demanding payment of almost 150,000 euros. With only two days to come up with the money, he is forced to offer up his beloved jazz club to the gangsters to compensate. But refusing to give up without a fight, over 32 hours Stelios’s life is turned upside down as he attempts to settle things once and for all.

With similarities to 2011’s Drive, neo-noir elements are incorporated well in Tetarti 04:45, with almost omnipresent rain used to increase tension, and our flawed hero concealing darker abilities than one would first expect. There is also a notably strong performance from Dimitris Tzoumakis playing Vassos, the powerful henchman who must play the middle man between his old friend and his boss.

There is certainly little to be desired when it comes to acting: all actors give extremely believable performances, and many are surprisingly well developed. That being said, female characters could do with a little more attention, since they appear in broad stereotypes – i.e. the nagging wife, or the stripper.

Overall, it is a great, in many ways traditional, gangster movie, which may miss out on the limelight it deserves due to the fact that its primary language is Greek. Incorporating everything important for a good crime thriller and a little extra in terms of style, it is a gripping film that is entitled to some attention.

Sarah Sutton

Tetarti (Wednesday) 04:45 does not have a UK release date yet.

For further information about the 59^th London Film Festival visit here , and for more of our coverage visit here.

Watch the trailer for Tetarti (Wednesday) -4:45 here: