“Her Job” is a film about Panayiota, a stay at home mum, set on survival mode for quite long and living with a domineering husband who is out of work. As the economic pressure increases on her family, semi-illiterate Panayiota will get a job for the first time in her life, as a cleaner in a mall. Stranded with what most would regard as a humble dead-end job, Panayiota will for the first time in her life feel a sense of autonomy, while she slowly gains some kind of visibility in her family.
By shedding light on the heart of the modest people, film director and co-scriptwriter Nikos Labot manages to draw quite a realistic portrait of a Greek low-income family whose life has become even more difficult on account of the crisis. And although the crisis is a focal point of the film, it is also the story of woman’s emancipation that has oddly been achieved through labour exploitation. If the protagonist finds joy in life through working overtime cleaning toilets, it makes you think about women’s position in contemporary Greek society.
Nikos Labôt studied film directing in Athens, Greece. He has worked on feature and short films as well as in television in Greece and France. He has directed a creative documentary, music videos, two theatre plays and three short films. His last short film “The Dog”(2009) participated in numerus international film festivals and won many awards. “Her Job” premiered inthe International Competition section of Thessaloniki International Film Festival and won Best Actress Award for its protagonist Marisha Triantafyllidou. Nikos Labot talks to Greek News Agenda* about how he built his characters, the effects of the crisis on Greek society and why “Her Job: is a feminist and political film.
