The Archipelago #19: Dimitris Papanikolaou – The Greek Weird Wave in Cinema and its Biopolitical Realism

The Archipelago

In the years of the Greek crisis from 2010 onwards, a new style emerged in Greek cinema. Named by curators and journalists “Weird Wave,” it gradually took over international audiences despite its vast diversity in themes and styles. In 2018, “The Favourite,” the latest feature film of one of Weird Wave’s pioneers, Yorgos Lanthimos, was nominated for 10 Academy Awards. Following years of work in the field of Modern Greek Studies, Dimitris Papanikolaou, an Associate Professor and Fellow of St Cross College at the University of Oxford has published the book “Greek Weird Wave, A Cinema of Biopolitics.” In this episode, he talks about this peculiar cinematic style, the understanding of power it proposes and the concept of biopolitical realism.