Konstantinoupoleos 280: Thessaloniki

280 Constantinople St., Thessaloniki is the first episode of Docville, a cinema-verite documentary series about urban life in Greece today, during a time of crisis: The people working at Zygos, a seedy cabaret in Thessaloniki, are all poor and have to struggle for their everyday survival. Waiters, bouncers, dancers and singers create a micro-society with its own rules on the margins of “respectable” society. They work hard at night trying to cope with the financial crisis. Aris is one of them. He is the “agent,” the traditional “male hero” of the Greek city. He is macho, but with kindness, humor and fine manners. There is hope within him, but at the same time he has the feeling of a void, a sense that he has wasted his life working at night. An endless night that vacillates dangerously between bravery and misery...