Beautiful Olga knows, she could do better than playing trophy wife to a rich brute in a grim provincial town somewhere in Greece. She finds solace in the arms of her new lover, pop-folk-singer-cum-nightclub-owner, Manos. She leaves her husband Iraklis for good, taking away not only his honor, but also his secret stash of one million euros. The couple go off the grid, to a love nest in the mountains.This double insult is too much for Iraklis to take. Instigated by his mother Fotini, he contacts the head of the local mafia, Tsekos, and puts a contract on both their heads.
In the clean mountain air, Olga gets her mojo back and decides she will return the money. Manos doesn’t show his frustration but reaches out to his mother, Aliki, and expresses his murderous thoughts to her. She convinces her weak-minded narcissist of a son that the right thing to do is betraying Olga and keeping the money for themselves. Of course, no one must know of the one million euros, so Iraklis must “disappear”, too. To that end, they contact Tsekos as well, and put a contract on both Iraklis’ and Olga’s heads.
But Tsekos, who’s spent decades in the “making people disappear” business, knows better than letting a chance like this slip through his fingers. He has a better plan and no qualms about it: killing the lot of them and keeping the million for the family. That means there is no room for outside witnesses… but what about the inside ones?
Lost in their conniving planning and scheming, the three families forget the strongest motive of all: love. Pure, romantic, unrequitted love, the kind that can drive a man to do anything in order to save an unsuspecting woman from the wolves that surround her.
Yannis Economides was born in Cyprus and studied film in Athens. He directed several shorts and documentaries before his feature debut, "Matchbox", in 2003. "Soul Kicking", his second feature, premiered at the Cannes International Critics Week (Semaine de la critique) in 2006 and was screened at numerous other international festivals, including Chicago, Pusan, Tallinn and Lecce. His 2010 feature "Knifer", screened at the Pusan IFF, receiving 7 awards at the Hellenic Film Academy Awards in the same year. The film also received the Best Film of the Year award from the Greek Association of Film Critics and the LAGFF 2011 Best Feature Film award.
His fourth feature, STRATOS, premiered in the Competition Programme of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival in 2014. For each one of his four feature films, Economides has been honored with the Greek Film Critics Association Award for Best Greek Feature Film of the Year.
In October 2016, his first theatrical production premiered at the New Stage of the National Theatre in Athens, with Economides directing his own play SLEEP, STELLA, SLEEP.
DIRECTOR'S FILMOGRAPHY:
2003: Spirtokouto (Spirtokouto)
2006: Soul Kicking (I Psychi sto Stoma)
2010: Knifer (Macherovgaltis)
2014: Stratos (To Mikro Psari)
2020: Ballad for a Pierced Heart (I Mpalanta tis Trypias Kardias
Vasilis Bisbikis: Manos
Vicky Papadopoulou: Olga
Yannis Tsortekis: Iraklis
Stathis Stamoulakatos: Glaros
Vangelis Mourikis: Ntinos
Giorgos Yannopoulos: Lampros
Lena Kitsopoulou: Vivi
Vasiliki Kalimani: Fotini
Sofia Kounia: Aliki
Directed by: Yannis Economides
Script: Yannis Economides, Harry Lagoussis, Dimosthenis Papamarkos
Cinematography: Dimitris Katsaitis
Original Score: Jean-Michel Bernard
Editing: Yannis Chalkiadakis
Sound Design: Dinos Kitou, Costas Fylaktides
Set Decoration: Ioylia Stavridou
Costume Design: Christina Lardikou
Makeup: Yannis Pamoukis
VFX Supervisor: Antonis Kotzias
Associate Producer: Ioanna Bolomyti
Producers: Panos Papahadzis, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Elie Meirovitz, Ingmar Trost, Yannis Economides
Original Title: Η ΜΠΑΛΑΝΤΑ ΤΗΣ ΤΡΥΠΙΑΣ ΚΑΡΔΙΑΣ (I MPALANTA TIS TRYPIAS KARDIAS)
English Title: Ballad For A Pierced Heart
Language: Greek
Runtime: 140 mn
Sound: 5.1
Format: DCP, 4K, colour
Countries of Production: Greece: France, Germany, Cyprus
