Stratos - The Little Fish aka Το μικρό ψάρι (2014) Greek Noir

This Greek Noir has a look that's a bit of a blend of California Noir / Mediterranean Spaghetti Western / and a storyline that will also loosely remind you of Léon: The Professional (1994) and Get Carter (1971) and maybe a dash of Sin City, Vol. 4: That Yellow Bastard.

Directed by Yannis Economides. Written by Yannis Economides, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Vangelis Mourikis, and Xiros Thanos. Cinematography by Dimitris Katsaitis and Music by Babis Papadopoulos. Polina Dellatola as Katerina, 

The film stars Vangelis Mourikis as Stratos Karamanis a baker by night a mob hit man by day. 

Vangelis Mourikis as Stratos Karamanis 

 

Petros Zervos as the crippled hunchback Makis

Petros Zervos as the crippled hunchback Makis, Vicky Papadopoulou as his hooker sister Vicky. Giannis Tsortekis as Yorgos, Giorgos Giannopoulos as gang leader Antonis Petropoulos.

Vicky Papadopoulou as Vicky

Giannis Tsortekis as Yorgos

Giorgos Giannopoulos as Antonis Petropoulos

Giannis Anastasakis as Bogiatzis, Sonja Theodoridou as Jenny Petropoulou, Polina Dellatola as Katerina, and Alekos Pangalos as Leonidas.

Giannis Anastasakis as Bogiatzis

Polina Dellatola as Katerina

The Story 

Wind. A dry landscape. A trolley/bus graveyard. A dead line of yellow peeling, rusting electric buses,  their trolley poles hang limp. 

A frantic man wearing glasses peers anxiously through a dust covered window. He runs out of one of the trolley buses and across a dry grass field.  At a slope break above a fence line he waits. 

A deliveryman on a motorcycle with a cooler on the back comes up the road along the fence line. The frantic man jumps up and waves him down. The motorcyclist removes a plastic bag with food from the cooler and gives it to the man. The man pays him and tells him to keep the change. He runs back to the bus.

We see Stratos in a leather jacket. Waiting out of site at the end of the bus. When the man with the glasses hops aboard the front of the bus, Stratos enters from the rear pulling out an automatic. Stratos fires and puts a round through the frantic man's left eye glass spraying blood and brain matter, painting  the wall of bus. 

Stratos is next seen driving out to a abandoned quarry where, he drops the automatic down an open shaft. 

At the base terminal parking lot for Parnitha Funitel, the cable car on Mont Parness that accesses the Casino Mont Parnes, just outside of Athens, Stratos meets Bogiatzis and gets his money. 

The Parnitha Funitel

Bogiatzis asks Stratos if he wants to make twice as much for an out of town "paint" job. He also tells Stratos that Yorgos saw him when he went up the funicular. He tells Stratos not to trust him, Leonidas is one thing, but his brother Yorgos is a real cunt. Leonidas BTW, saved Stratos life when he was doing time in prison. Stratos owes him.

Stratos rides up the funicular to the casino. There he meets Yorgos who is pissed off that Stratos kept him waiting. Stratos bullshits him with the explanation that the private room at the casino is where he makes his money, not at his night job at the bakery. 

Stratos gives Yorgos the money he just got from Bogiatzis. Stratos asks about the others. Yorgos tells him that they are paying up but the escape tunnel they are digging under the prison to free Leonidas is sucking up all the money.

Stratos drives up to the prison where Leonidas is doing time. He meets in the visiting room with Leonidas who asks him if he's getting any pussy and why he is working still in the bakery. When Stratos tells him he lost his nerve.

Leonidas goes nuts throwing what he's got in his pockets at Stratos telling him that he should never have saved his life when he was doing his time. Tells him that he should have let them cut him and tie his guts around his throat. 

Back in the neighborhood Stratos is about to go into his building when Vicky calls out from across the street and tells him she's having a problem with the old man. Stratos, the hunchback Makis and Vicky help the old man up where he's fallen in the bathroom and walk him to bed. 

The next morning Makis rings Stratos' bell and explains that they are taking the old man to the hospital and asks Stratos if he will bring some money to Petropoulos he's expecting a payment today. 

So Stratos goes to see Petropoulos at his nightclub. There he pays Petropoulos the 1,500 he got from Makis and Vicky. Petropoulos is excited to see him. He wants to know how he managed to cut up the men who insulted his girlfriend when he was only nineteen. Petropoulos tells his bodyguard that Stratos is a legend. He asks Stratos to consider working for him rather than at the bakery. He asks Stratos to take his time and think about it.

Petropoulos tells his bodyguard that Stratos is a legend. He asks Stratos to consider working for him rather than at the bakery. He asks Stratos to take his time and think about it.

Stratos does his out of town paint job and collects double. When he brings the money to Yorgos we find out that the scene in the prison waiting room between Leonidas and Stratos was all staged for the guards benefit. When Leonidas escapes the cops won't pin it on his gang since they think they are all fighting amongst themselves. 

The next day Stratos and Makis are sitting on a bench in the park. Stratos tells Makis about this girl who got fired from the bakery. He suggests to Makis that he could put in a good word for Vicky. Makis tells Stratos that he must be kidding, Vicky is making real money turning tricks.

WTF?

Before long they'll have the debt Vicki owes Petropoulos paid off. He also mentions to Stratos that Vicky is up there right now fucking Petropoulos' son. Take from the son to pay the father. Stratos says nothing.

Makis also tells Stratos that Vicky is gonna "turn out" Katerina to Petropoulos on Sunday. They can get their debt paid off even faster. Nice family how noir of them? Stratos says nothing but you can feel the wheels turning in his head.

Katerina, WTF?

Things go Noirsville after Leonidas in prison, gets into a fight with "The Crocodile."   Yorgos tells Stratos that the rival gangs in prison will find a way to kill Leonidas before they can get him out.

Stratos decides to give Yorgos his "stash" his "grisbi," in order to accelerate the escape tunnel construction. Then Stratos, while eating at a restaurant, is approached by Jenny Petropoulos who tells him he better join up with Petropoulos soon, before it's too late. The final straw is the betrayal of Stratos  after Leonidas is killed in prison, by Yorgos who skips off with all of his money after killing the rest of the gang, 

Noirsville

Sonja Theodoridou as Jenny Petropoulou

A well made Neo Noir by Yannis Economides. Vangelis Mourikis as the introverted hitman is great. Petros Zervos as his twisted (in more ways than two) friend is very good. The rest of the cast is quite convincing. 

2015 Winner Hellenic Film Academy Award for Best Actor Vangelis Mourikis, 2015 Winner Hellenic Film Academy Award Best Supporting Actress Vicky Papadopoulou. 2015 Winner Hellenic Film Academy Award Best Music Babis Papadopoulos and Costas Fylaktidis, 2015 Winner Hellenic Film Academy Award Best Sound Dinos Kittou, William Edouard Franck, and Costas Fylaktidis. 

Needs a release with English subs. 8/10.