Cyprus in a starring role

Cyprus in a starring role

text ALEXANDER DAVIDIAN

A raft of incentives is set to establish Cyprus as a film production hub; but the island’s cinematic potential is arguably already being expressed through its new wave of talented local filmmakers, capturing awards and acclaim atA-list international festivals.

eEndless hours setting up and moving lights; laying heavy dolly tracks for a single,

bravura camera move; overseeing period costumes, child and animal talent, and explosive special effects – all while keeping within budget and on schedule. For some, this is just another day at the office.

Presumed to be the most glamorous of professions, cinema is actually an intensely gruelling art, not to mention… an expensive one. Nevertheless, according to data portal Statista, the global box office revenue is forecast to rise from $38 billion in 2016 to nearly $50 billion in 2020.

And now, Cyprus is hoping to have its share of the cinematic pie, capitalizing on its coastal beauty, endless sunshine and diverse locations bounded by short geographic distances, and above all, professionals to populate every technical department. In this, the island’s model is neighbouring Malta, which has successfully invested in its international movie-making appeal since the early Noughties.

DIVERSE RANGE OF INCENTIVES

In 2017, a raft of incentives to lure foreign film productions to Cyprus were announced, with Finance Minister Harris Georgiades hailing the investment framework as one offering “more than satisfactory and important tax incentives, tax redemptions and subsidies”.

Production companies filming in Cyprus will be able to choose between a cash rebate – a partial refund of the amount invested in the film – or a tax credit, while also benefiting from tax discounts on equipment and infrastructure, and VAT returns on expenditure in scope.

The cash rebate may reach up to 35% of expenditure in Cyprus and is capped at €650,000 for each production, be it a film, TV series or documentary. The incentives scheme has drawn mixed reactions from the island’s filmmakers.

Writer-director Stavros Pamballis – fresh from shooting his debut feature, ‘The Siege on Liberty Street’, in July 2018 – is cautiously optimistic. “I think any initiative that brings foreign productions to our shores, or encourages coproduction between international and local producers, will have an immediate positive impact on the local industry on a craft level,” he says.

“For writers and directors, the short-term benefits may not be immediately obvious, but I do believe any incentive to shoot a film in Cyprus will help our case when we pitch films to foreign producers.”

TONIA MISHIALI is one of the island’s leading female filmmakers; her debut feature ‘Pause’ was given a slot in the ‘East of the West’ section at the prestigious Karlovy Vary film festival this July.

Meanwhile, hotels, restaurants, costume designers, prop masters, art directors, transportation providers, location scouts, and all related local professionals will undoubtedly be hired by foreign productions attracted to the island as a film location.

LOCAL CREATIVITY ON THE RISE

Irrespective of incentives, however, the island’s local filmmakers have been unleashing a cinematic output that far transcends the funding available from the Education Ministry’s Film Advisory board.

In fact, Cypriot directors have been a consistent presence at leading film festivals over recent years, showcasing a native talent that has used every means to keep the cameras rolling – including crowdfunding, personal savings and gratis collaboration with generous peers when the Advisory board’s meagre funds dried up completely during the island’s economic crisis from 2013 to 2015.

Such dedication comes at a price, of course. Cyprus Directors Guild president Daina Papadaki points out that “filmmakers and their teams truly struggle to make their films, forcing them to make compromises that can potentially put the end product at risk. They may have to reduce the time necessary to shoot the film, limit their choice of technical equipment, compromise on crew selection and cast, and so on.”

SMUGGLING HENDRIX, Marios Piperides’s tale of a musician seeking to recover his dog from across the green line in Cyprus, won the Best International Narrative Feature prize at Tribeca in April.

TAKING UP TRAILBLAZERS’ TORCH Nevertheless, the creative spirit cannot be quelled, and local moviemakers have taken up the torch lit by the island’s filmmaking pioneers.

Best-known among their number is Zorba the Greek helmer Michael Cacoyannis, a darling of the Oscars, Cannes and Berlin, but also auteurs such as Michael Papas (whose son, Minos, is now also an up-and-coming Cypriot director), Andreas Pantzis, Christos Shopahas and Aliki Danezi-Knutsen – a particular trailblazer for the island’s female filmmakers.

The main award winners include: director Petros Charalambous, whose debut feature, ‘Boy on the Bridge’ (based on Cypriot author Eve Makis’s novel, Land of the Golden Apple), had its world premiere at the ‘Alice in the City’ section of the 2016 Rome film festival; writer-producer Marios Piperides, whose first feature film as director, ‘Smuggling Hendrix’, captured the Tribeca film festival’s Best International Narrative prize in April 2018; writer-director-producer Tonia Mishiali, whose debut feature at the helm, ‘Pause’, premiered in the ‘East of the West’ section at the prestigious Karlovy Vary festival in July 2018.

PETROS CHARALAMBOUS’s coming of age feature debut, ‘Boy on the Bridge’, set in the beautiful Cypriot village of Kalopanayiotis, has been very well received on the festival circuit.

Such success bears testimony to Cypriot filmmakers’ high standards of professional excellence, the shift from exploring the island’s partition toward telling highly personal stories, and the enhanced emphasis on quality screenwriting.

In fact, Piperides’s screenplay award for ‘Smuggling Hendrix’ led to representation by world arthouse film sales agency Match Factory, while a separate script by Pamballis, ‘My Friend Goliath’, garnered him a place at the coveted Sundance Institute Mediterranean workshop in 2017.

CULTIVATING APPRECIATION FOR CINEMA

Cyprus’ filmmakers today also face less-obvious challenges, such as the lack of local actors in certain age groups, or which version of Greek – modern mainland or the Cypriot dialect – to use in their films’ dialogue. Equally critical is the question of how to increase the low engagement of local audiences.

“We need to teach schoolchildren to watch films and appreciate them,” says Mishiali, one of the island’s many female filmmakers, whose personal oeuvre explores women’s lives in patriarchal societies. “If kids are cultured into watching films, they could perhaps convince their parents that ‘this is art’; some might be motivated to become filmmakers themselves.”

Charalambous, whose Eighties coming-of-age feature is also enjoying distribution on KLM and Emirates flights, agrees. “In Rome, at the premiere, we had a thousand kids; here in Cyprus, they were afraid to show the film at schools, and that was really disappointing.” Cultivating a cinematic appreciation in local audiences, he says, will take courage – which takes us back to the potential of both the island and its local creatives.

“The most important thing is to have at least five or six feature films and 10 to 15 shorts a year,” reflects Piperides. “If this happens, we’ll see a big jump in local films and their travelling abroad,” in addition to increased local audience engagement. To achieve this, he adds, the Film Advisory board’s own funding budget must increase.

“Ultimately, I don’t see a reason why we cannot compete with Malta,” insists veteran Cypriot producer Constantinos Nikiforou. “The people working in this industry have a lot of love and passion; they are all overworked yet never complain. We are here to deliver, because we love it!”