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24 Hour Festival People speakOn the last day of the festival, we askedfestival-goers their opinions on the highlightsand shortcomings of this year’s event. Here area few of the uncensored comments from thisrandom survey.Pavlos Kougioutzis(sculptor, made the Gold Alexander awards andNational Awards)The atmosphere is wonderful this year. [TheAlexander award is bigger with more facial detail].Thanassis Giandimis(journalist, Cinemanews.gr)I really liked the masterclasses.There was a goodchoice of people …I also liked the InternationalCompetition films. I didn’t much like the weather,but that’s nothing to do with the festival! Andseriously, there were a few problems with the pressoffice.Angelos Frantzis(director, "A Dog’s Dream")I recommend the whole Hou Hsiao-hsien section. Ialso liked the totally happy film that I saw yesterday,by 96-year-old Suzuki, "The Raccoon Princess". Irecommend it as breakfast for everyone.We shouldwatch it every single day as soon as we wake up. Myfilm went unexpectedly well, with a warm, filledtheater, considering it’s already come out on DVD,and opened in cinemas.Mareta Sidiropoulou(student)I really liked "Citizen Dog" and didn’t like "Sugar".Markos Holevas(director)The themes of the films were expected andgenerally there was nothing really new about thisfestival making it different to previous ones. I wouldhave liked fewer films and better access to someworkshops.Nikos Giorgakis(actor, "Liubi")I haven’t seen a lot of films. I likedGrammatikos’ film ["The Wake"].Meletis Georgiadis(Actor, "Evil")I saw a lot of Greek films and Igenerally liked them. Maybe therewere some weaknesses with thescripts, but from a technical viewpointthey are getting better. I liked "TrueBlue", "The Wake" and DoraMasklavanou’s film.Natasha Sinesios(Tarkovsky scholar)I liked the atmosphere.The films I saw wereexcellent. I saw a French film and a Danish film thatreally annoyed me. No, it was very good, but souldestroying.I’ve seen a Suzuki film, a wonderful HouHsiao-hsien film, "The Puppetmaster".Antonis Ververis(biologist)I enjoy the chance to see people. In Nicosia, whereI’m from, you don’t have things like this.Christos Politis(volunteer, press office)The festival was well organized, with good films andparties.Pami Papachristou(festival-goer)I really liked all the Irish films. I hated the film thatimitated "A Clockwork Orange". I wanted to kill thedirector. I wonder why instead of making filmswhere they rape and kill women to show usviolence in society, they don’t kill men and havetheir penises cut off for once.Dimitri Atinoglou(festival-goer)I really liked Nicolaides’ new film….Ididn’t like "A Perfect Couple". I felt therewere a lot of slow films that should’vebeen wrapped up in 60 minutes, butended up taking 120.Dimitris Makris(producer, "Tsiou")I was very impressed by "Sangre" in theInternational Competition. I really likedits fresh perspective and new cinematiclanguage that’s very hard to come by.Venia Vergou(journalist,Athinorama)This year Seijun Suzuki, Kim Jee-woon, Miranda July,Andrew Bujalski and Jerome Bonnell were directorsthat helped us change the way we see cinema.Independence Days was the most lively section ofthis year’s festival…Unfortunately the Greekjournalists were notably absent from it.Giorgos Papagiannis(journalist)Some organizational problems from the pastpersist.And some of the people who work here actas if they are doing us a huge favor every time theydo their job…I really liked the Danish films and theWinterbottom tribute.Lambros Trifillis(producer, "Evil" and "The Heart of the Beast")I liked that they had the Agora this year.Although Idon’t think it functioned exactly like it should, it wasa good move. I like the festival as always becauseThessaloniki is beautiful and I like the piers. It was agood year.Akis Karpanos(film critic, Exodos, Metro magazines)There are many different kind of films to choosefrom. [But] quantity doesn’t necessarily correspondto quality.Although things are pretty organized, Idon’t like the way tickets are sold.With all thesedifferent kind of passes, the more populist side ofthe festival is lost as people can’t find tickets.Giannis Raouzeos(film critic,Cinephile Magazine)I very much liked "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance","Citizen Dog" and the retrospectives includingSeijun Suzuki.…with Angelike Contisand Elinda LabropoulouDublin night owls in a rutJudging any of the characters of "The Halo Effect"on appearances, as the phrase denotes, would beone big mistake.The main character, Fatso, is asclose to an unpretentious antihero as you canpossibly get. And his late night take-away in Dublin’sinner city is a world away from the gentrified citycenter.The film’s writer and director Lance Dalysays this is a movie about people stuck in a rut.So why do you think this would makeinteresting material for a film?While I was editing my first film, which took a fewyears, I was very poor, so during the day I wasworking on the film and during the night I wasdelivering pizzas and Chinese food. So I startedwriting down stories that were happening aroundme at the take-away and observing thecustomers…There are people who come out lateat night in those places that you never get to see atany other time of the day.Do the characters correspond to realpeople?For legal reasons I would have to say no –but then,yes, of course they do. Most of them are actuallyme. Especially Fatso, this guy who exists in themiddle of this night-time world.This is why I decidedto use night light throughout.The only daylight is inthe last scene….I kind of based it around this guywho only gets up when its dark and goes to bedwhen it’s dark and never really sees the daylight. Italso seemed like a good metaphor for the rut themain character is in.The film is a bit like "a week in the life of"and then it ends. Is that for a reason?I think that the film tricks you into believing thatsomething big did happen. So it manages to be afilm that can leave the audience satisfied that therehas been a resolution, while there hasn’t beenone….When I was making this film, I was lookingat life and thinking that things don’t really changeand that people go through the same cycles overand over again.Can you tell us more about the setting ofthe film?It’s inner city Dublin, a little pocket of the city thathasn’t changed while the entire city has beenrebuilt in the recent past.There are still peoplethere that live in that rut and that kind of decayand to me that’s much more romantic than the bigbuildings and the flash cars. I find it easier to seethe humanity when you are between all that dirtand grime. People in Dublin responded very well tobeing shown this side of the city [that] they don’tget to see much anymore.15