Balamos

1982 1h 22m EL

👍

7.2

SOLID

⭐

7.4

IMDB

★7.2TMDB · 11★7.4IMDB · 82

AdventureDramaFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In order to buy a horse, a man wanders in the bazaars of Thessaly. His journey will take him further than he imagines, as old prophets, forgotten witches and vampire princes will find himself on his way.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Stavros Tornes
Balamos
Kyriakos Vilanakis
Kyriakos
Eleni Maniati
Female Yeti
Mitsos Angelakopoulos
Horse Dealer
Enzo Attigenti
The 'Black-Shirt'
Constantine Pangalos
Prophet
Christos Karagoutas
Chaldean Priest
Salil Salil
Diri

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Stavros Tornes
Writers: Stavros Tornes
Languages: Greek
Countries: Greece

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

82 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

44 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Stavros Tornes, shot by Stamatis Giannoulis. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Dimos Theos shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Stavros Tornes and Kyriakos Vilanakis and Eleni Maniati carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0254983 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 11 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Stavros Tornes directs. Stamatis Giannoulis behind the camera. Dimos Theos cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Greece. Dialogue in Greek.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

182 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
244 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Directed by Stavros Tornes, shot by Stamatis Giannoulis. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Dimos Theos shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Stavros Tornes and Kyriakos Vilanakis and Eleni Maniati carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt0254983 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 11 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Stamatis Giannoulis
Editing: Dimos Theos
Costume design: Dimitris Kakoulidis
Runtime: 82 min · 1h 22m
Status: Released
Original language: EL
IMDB: Balamos (1982)
IMDB rating: 7.4/10 · 82 votes

Awards

1 win

Also by

Stavros Tornes

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

SGhosh2014-01-29
★ 8/10
Balamos, Stavros Tornes, 1982 Here is a curious film, suggested to me as a 'gentler El Topo' and one that I watched two times back to back to fully absorb. This is an expansive story, in some manner the precursor of Cloud Atlas, and definitely it has elements common to El Topo. The film also has its own charm, the extremely personal way the film is shot and how the landscapes become an entity with the movie. The latter is achieved by strange way, he shoots both day and night as naturally close as possible. There are phases of darkness with only the moon and ambient noise, and nature becomes a breathing part of our protagonist's journey towards Olympus. The film has its foundations in the very same idea Inception is based on, but its used here with different connotations, very philosophical I believe. Our man wants to buy a horse, probably in reality probably not, and in his journey to do that he indulges into dreams that take him through his own past lives. He pictures himself as a slave in the middle ages, around Christ's resurrection, making his journey towards Olympus. The horse remains a recurrent motif throughout and somewhat elusive to our character. But this film is not much about the story as it is about symbolism and that is where similarities to El Topo come in. This is a quest of a man for the final truth, much like the Mahaprasthan undertaken by the Pandavas in Mahabharata, only that it remains ever elusive. The film is shot in low light and sub-par production values but it is transcendental in its core belief and sometimes stimulating, sometimes not. At places I found it to be a bit opaque and the story is easy to miss if you're not attentive because its really buried under the symbolic narrative, but the film does have some great moments of eternal truth. And through mostly simple, sometimes unreadable imagery. Probably I did not pick up all the Biblical references but the usage of the horse as a symbol of an illusive object of desire in reality as well as dream world was a very interesting element. I guess this is a movie that is actually 'obscure', considering the two reviews in IMDb are written by people who have put no effort into watching it. These are my thoughts on first sight, but I hope to understand this work better because it's indeed very interesting.

Production companies