20 EUROS | Omeleto

A couple meets a man. Eleni and Nick are a couple heading to a bar for a night out, where they meet another couple. They chat about the couple's history, and Elena and Nick discuss their different perspectives on how to handle a bout of jealousy. Eleni thinks it's understandable for a man to defend his girlfriend from another man's advances; Nick thinks it's unnecessary in this day and age. They park in a quiet, sketchy lot, where they're approached by a man who offers to watch over and protect Nick's car for money. He's persistent, and Nick gives him money just to get him to leave them alone. They go to the bar, bickering over whether or not Nick should've given him the money. But when they return to the car at night and find themselves in a tricky situation, their hypothetical debate over ideas becomes perilously real. Written and directed by Alexander Machlouzarides-Shalit, this compelling short drama turns an ironic eye on the topics of masculinity and violence, examining how a couple's expectations and impressions shapeshift during a volatile situation. The couple spends much of their dialogue debating their ideas of what men should do when it comes to protecting their loved ones, hashing over more traditional ideas and more modern ones. But the narrative also skillfully builds up to an action-packed, thriller-like climax, putting these abstract ideas to the test in the realm of the immediate and physical. The storytelling is handled with a patina of naturalism, shot with a realism that situates Eleni and Nick as characters who exist in a contemporary time and place. They're a long-term, normal couple, meeting a newer one: one of Eleni's friends has a new love interest, and Eleni wants to check him out. Their dialogue has an underlying affection and intimacy, as well as the spiky playfulness of two people hashing out their ideas of masculinity: what's toxic, what isn't. As the couple, actors Anthi Kasinou and Constantinos Tsitsios have the give-and-take of a long-term pair that know one another well, but they also have moments where the ideas they're discussing hit them personally. Their discussion is provocative in and of itself, but moments of defensiveness reveal these thoughts have hit an emotional nerve. Eleni and Nick have personal stakes in their ideas of what men should and shouldn't do or be, although any confusion or questions are quickly rolled past as the drinks pile up. But at the end of the night, Eleni and Nick's discussion becomes acutely rooted in reality when they discover themselves stuck in a tense situation that erupts in violence. 20 EUROS has an absurdist, darkly comical take on this portion of the action, rendering it from Eleni's point of view. With its humorously heightened score, slow-motion action and sly comedy, the conclusion seems to say that we can talk all we want about ideas of gender expectations. In heated moments when we are most challenged and must rely on primal instinct, what do we decide to do and how does it change how we view someone or something? At the end, it leaves us on an ambiguous note, one that balances humor with doubt and making for a film that is funny and thought-provoking in equal measure. 20 EUROS. Courtesy of Alexander Machlouzarides-Shalit at https://alexmachsha.com.