Euridice BA 2037 (1975)

While its always a great thing when a film from a notable director achieves international notoriety and a cult following that usually comes along with it, frustration can occur when the spotlight remains only on that one film when the filmmaker responsible has a body of work full of other equally worthy titles that remain buried for one reason or another. Such is the case with Greek filmmaker Nikos Nikolaidis. Nikolaidis' name might not be instantly recognizable, however more adventurous viewers keen on unusual cinema will no doubt be aware of his most notorious film Singapore Sling (1990), which quickly found itself to be a favorite of cult film enthusiasts widely traded on the bootleg circuit. Brilliant as Singapore Sling is, and to be sure its reputation is more than earned and deserved, the rest of Nikolaidis' films seem to be largely unknown outside of Greece despite having beautifully remastered home video releases made available by the late directors own family. Although he only directed nine features, Nikolaidis' was a filmmaker very much in the same vein as the likes of David Lynch, Walerian Borowczyk and Andrzej Zulawski. In other words, a rare breed who's collective influences form a vision so utterly singular their work exists entirely within its own universe or genre and with his debut feature film Euridice BA 2037, Nikolaidis vision proved to be original right from the very beginning.

A dystopian take on the classic Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, Euridice BA 2037 centers on Euridice (Vera Tschechowa) a young woman living alone in apartment number 2037 under a totalitarian regime. Believing her designated time living in apartment 2037 has been served, Euridice is desperate to receive a transfer to another apartment, making several calls to the governments transfer department requesting her move. The longer she waits for her transfer orders, the more frantic and paranoid Euridice becomes with her grip on reality gradually loosening, all the while receiving phone calls throughout the day from a stranger, a surrogate Orpheus, claiming to love her and asking to come visit her.

Euridice BA 2037 (ευριδίκη βα 2ο37) marks two firsts for Nikolaidis. Not only was it his first feature film but its also the first part of a trilogy Nikolaidis would dub “The Shape of the Coming Nightmare” which Nikolaidis would return to in the middle of his career with Morning Patrol (1987) and with his final film The Zero Years (2005). Centering on outsiders surviving in a world gone completely to hell under a dictatorship and nonstop surveillance, the trilogy is a bleak view of the future which could very well become the present at any time. For a debut feature, Euridice BA 2037 is a remarkably assured film with virtually all the signatures Nikolaidis would become synonymous with in future films making their debuts here, the biggest being the concept of purgatory, a theme which permeates every single one of Nikolaidis' films. An extremely claustrophobic film, the idea of Euridice's utilitarian place of residence being her own personal purgatory, as well as the overall idea of the entire outside world being an authoritarian prison, is brilliantly rendered by Nikolaidis' decision to never actually leave the apartment. Aside from a few very brief shots from Euridice's point of view outside of windows, the film is entirely confined to the apartment which only heightens the sense of unease when Euridice's paranoia intensifies and the visuals become more hallucinatory, and major credit is due to the beautiful Vera Tschechowa who carries these moments and really the film as a whole on her shoulders with ease.

Although shot in 1975, the film took six years to actually make it to Greek cinemas, however the film did play at the 1975 Thessaloniki Film Festival where it took home five awards including best director. Regarding the films critical reception, Nikolaidis humorously claimed “Certain intellectual Italian critics asserted that Euridice BA 2037 applies and finally proves Lyotard’s cinematographic theories as well as the solution to many of the problems which puzzled Pasolini for years. I am embarrassed because I didn’t know then and I still don’t know anything about Lyotard’s theories or Pasolini’s problems.” When interviewed near the end of his career he stated his intentions with the film saying “I just wanted to depict the face of a society to come, which had already given signs of its coming and in which we are living now.” Interestingly in that same interview Nikolaidis claims that Euricide BA 2037 is the film of his that he felt was his most solid. Given some of the films that would follow, its quite the statement but the fact remains that Euridice BA 2037 is the type of debut film most filmmakers strive to make on their first go around. A confident and highly imaginative take on a classic Greek tale, it was only the beginning of what was to go onto become one of the most singular and original bodies of work in world cinema.