ABSTRACT
The author explores the role of social and architectural spaces in a series of contemporary Greek art house films that re-enact the generic conventions of the neo-noir and the thriller in the context of the Great Recession, such as Stratos, by Yannis Economides and Wednesday 04.45, by Alexis Alexiou. These films generate a dark iconography of a cityscape in crisis that challenges the stereotypes of the Athenian imagery, while simultaneously developing a critical discourse on the effects of neo-liberal values and policies on people and places. The social anxieties and spatial tensions that negotiate the notion of modernity and the urban forms produced by it in ambivalent terms can be found in the heart of the Athenian noir, both in terms of social space and architecture. Stratos, a coproduction between Greece, Cyprus and Germany, is the fourth feature film by Yannis Economides.
