VANCOUVER GREEK FILM FESTIVAL 2022 | MOVIE REVIEW: "Digger" is a Hollow Pit of Anger and Beauty
9/12 ForReel Score | 3.5/5 Stars
I find it difficult to write about the things that make me angry in a collected and thoughtful manner. And Digger, the 2020 Greek drama, made me quite angry.
Don’t get me wrong. Digger is meant to spark the ire of its audience. The drama follows a father and son, who not-so-peacefully live together in the woods of northern Greece, where they fend off the Machine: a mining corporation in hand with the local government that is tearing through this small family’s very land. The cynicism of environmental collapse mixed with the vitriol reserved only for family is enough to make any kind hearted person’s blood boil. (And I like to think of myself as someone with a kind heart.)
An aggravating premise isn’t enough, though, for me to downplay the beauty within Digger. Vangelis Mourikis (Attenberg, Chevalier) offers a powerful lead performance as Nikitas, the father and farmer. Likewise, the imagery that swirls around Nikitas is stunning. Falling trees are juxtaposed against the collapse of a family tree at home; while Johnny, the adult son, jumps dirt bikes off mounds of earth, Nikitas fights the torrential tides of mud that threaten their farm and livelihoods.
Digger is contemplative and secluded, as are most rural-set films, but it never lacks pace. The world of the woods feels thoroughly lived in as there is constantly something being done: animals that need tending to, produce to be picked and sold, chainsaws to be repaired. While the milieu of survival certainly swirls around Nikitas and Johnny, what Digger lacks is an emotional core to grasp onto.
The film never truly finds what’s at the center of itself. The decentralization of conflict (i.e. between Nikitas and the Machine, between Nikitas and Johnny, between Johnny and his new girlfriend, between the present, the past, and the future) means that the emotional stakes of the story end up spilling out, an ever growing puddle, rather than pooling together to create a finite and singular struggle. And while that may be an intentional choice, it isn’t one that works for me personally.
Where I am left with Digger is much like where Nikitas is left: sitting still with my anger. To construct a vessel for that feeling and transfer it to an audience successfully is undoubtedly part of the beauty in Digger. But anger is anger nonetheless; and I, for one, don’t need more things to be mad about in this world.
Acting/Casting - 2 | Visual Effects and Editing - 2 | Story and Message - 1 | Entertainment Value - 1 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 2 | Reviewer’s Preference - 1 | What does this mean?