Ecce Momo!

After a failed attempt at suicide, Morris Moshe (Momo) was clinically dead for 3 minutes and 17 seconds. When he suddenly regained consciousness his first words were: ‘Why Africa? Because it’s neither South nor West. Nor North nor East… It’s above the Earth.’ What did Momo mean? And where was he all that time?
Anastas Charalampidis’s first feature-length film was shot in St. Petersburg, Athens, Vienna, Prague, and so forth. One of his biggest influences was James Joyce’s Ulysses, which inspired him to think in non-formal images. ‘Lomotion’ (Lomography + motion), or taking pictures in non-organised conditions and spontaneously improvising along with whatever happens in reality, was the inspiration for his visual approach. Other sources of inspiration were the Impressionists. Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer was the final trigger for the film.
With its strong editing, a voice-over with a carefully written literary text and inventive use of music, the film is an original work that is hard to classify in any particular genre. It is definitely experimental and innovative and most importantly – a fascinating testimony that keeps its audiences hypnotized until the very end. (LC)