SUNTAN

At his early 40s, Kostis is a non-typical specimen of the adult world. He doesn’t have a family of his own, like most men his age, but he too is a prisoner of his own body, forced to stand by and watch it wither away, unable to resist the merciless passage of time.

Kostis is a 42-year-old doctor who finds himself on the tiny Greek island of Antiparos, a total bore by winter and a sex-crazed cosmopolitan hotspot during summertime. Αll young Anna has to do to turn his head is burst into the clinic with her group of hard-partying friends and drag him out. Kostis will go out of his way to conquer her and impress them, but finds it harder and harder to keep up. How far can he go?
Suntan celebrates the beauty and strength of the young body, while at the same time it embraces its inevitable decay.

“Getting a suntan is beautiful, it is dangerous and it fades away quickly – just like youth.
We shot my most personal film to date during the summertime on the tiny island of Antiparos, when the place was packed with non-stop party-goers. Shooting a film at the busiest time of the season on a Greek island might sound like mission impossible to some, but to me it was an obvious choice. I’ve been going to Antiparos since I was 15 years old, like any hormonal teenager, and I still refuse to give up – although I’m dangerously close to the age of my leading man, Kostis.“

Argyris Papadimitropoulos