Giannis Spanos - Iliovasilema

Iliovasilema, Greek for ‘bass guitar lessons’* tells the story of 4 Greco-Roman wrestlers, who meet as children in a charming fishing village, and over carafes of white wine and olives forge a bond, swearing to save the village’s rec center from this really mean land developer by competing against each other in the only arena they know: the arena. Honor binds them together - but will defending it tear them apart? Find out when I do some actual research!

As it turns out, “Iliovasilema” is from Spanos’ score to the 1971 film “Ekeino to kalokairi”, which according to the handy Greek-To-English guide written on this stolen placemat from Mr. Souvlaki’s Family Pork Hut translates to “Ekeino to kaolkairi”. My best guess is that Ekeino is a person, and it seems that kaolkairi is a place, and this movie is about a person going to a place. Hey, what am I, a treasure-hunting university professor specializing in dead languages?

Moving on - for the completist, here’s a clip from the film. In this scene, a presumably drowned woman is massaged sensually, (SPOLER ALERT) while a girl builds sand castles. Greco-necro then puts on his sunglasses, and cut to dramatic voiceover. I think YouTube commenter purplevoxeater said it best when they quipped “Να ήταν κακός οιωνός η ταινία; Κάπως έτσι έμελλε να φύγει από την ζωή η Έλενα”. Amen, purplevoxeater.

*Actually Greek for sunset, but man, whoever this unibrowed chap is plucking the ol’ 4 string, he’s amazing.