Greek Cast Away with more satire and less weight-loss. This film was plodding along until the gut-punch at the end.

It’s a film with a very clear construction. Clearly you can see it has been built from the premise/punch line backwards. The surrounding construction of the joke is sound though. The diary felt like the only refuge for him apart from his raki. And the piano and guitar accompaniment helped create the downtrodden tone. I was genuinely lulled into sympathising for him and his desperate situation until the end which I did not expect at all. I knew the film was called Reply but it rightly revealed nothing.

The punch line itself when it comes then is funny and prescient even if no one would WRITE that on a piece of paper. And like many jokes, it also contains some truth. I want to say the film is a joke but I know how that sounds negative and would disrespect the makers; which I definitely don’t want to do because I enjoyed it very much. This film has the same purpose as a joke.

In a modern world, a man is left alone in a beach - the sole survivor of a ship's sinking. When he sends a message in a bottle asking for help he waits impatiently the reply - a reply different from what we would expect.

The film wants to create a feeling of alienation due to the modern digital world. The distance between people, the alteration of values and the failure of actual communication are all ideas that we could say are the base of this film. However, the way it approaches these issues is rather superficial. The film does not build a proper tension or a dense story and it bases all in the quick and unexpected ending. This works for some seconds but almost immediately we forget it. Though interesting, intelligent and funny, the film does not really challenge us.

Set on a desert island, “Reply” tells a story of a castaway trying to get help by sending a message in a bottle.

Old story, new context. Our castaway is chubby, likable, even funny man, who gives an impression that he is somehow accommodated to comfortable life. We do care about him being rescued and surviving the big danger he is caught in. When he gets his reply in the end, the whole movie can be watched trough a different prism. The reply he gets, virtual support from Facebook friends, identifies digital friends, Facebook likes and other forms of attention on the Internet with survival. Survival of ego perhaps, or survival of the illusion that this man is loved and accepted, at least online. Speaking of the illusion, even raki this man consumes could be viewed as a materialized equivalent of the illusion of life created via social networks. Raki is a very strong alcoholic drink – the castaway decides to reach for help only after the drink, or the illusion, is gone. Before that, he writes a journal. Even such activity, normal and expected in given circumstances, slightly reminds us of Facebook or Twitter statuses, or constant need to write everything we do.

This charming short is spiced up with irony, and the aftertaste is bitter.

Very good film in nice place.Τhe message passing is updated.!

I enjoyed the movie. It is a smart story and it also has a powerful meaning and all these in a beautiful landscape.

Wonderful :)

The short film features a captivating opening. Nature’s beauty and serenity (exemplified in the clear blue sea and virgin white beaches) are juxtaposed to the comically dramatic image of a bearded bаld guy. His clothes obviously too tight, he is attempting a pensive stare into the sea. A sombre voiceover paints a modern-day Robinson Crusoe, surviving on a diet of bananas and sushi. The unfortune of shipwreck quickly turns into a 5-star resort – fascinating but socially depressing. Alcohol provides salvation not just emotionally but purely practically. The myth of the message in a bottle comes to life, prompting associations with clichéd jokes and children’s tales. Underneath all the comic scenes and calm resort-like music, there lies a deeper issue – that of existential loneliness. As the film gears towards its resolution we realise that the shipwreck is, in fact, a metaphor for a modern culture of seclusion and social isolation, facilitated through a false sense of technological interconnectedness. The puffy bald guy could easily be a couch potato who hasn’t left home in days, benefiting from infinite supplies of takeaway food and modern conveniences, all the while longing for real human interaction. However, we are so beyond the point of genuine relationships that even the concern of others is translated in social media terms. An impersonal ‘like’ and a ‘share’ are the salvation and validation we seek. As long as we remain on our private deserted islands, that’s the only thing we truly deserve.

Reply is a short film rooted in the landscape of a seemingly desolated island and the life of its only inhabitant; the digital age Robinson Crusoe. In the film, he is only seen in a small part of the Island, trying to find food to go on living. Stylistically, the voiceover tells his inner thoughts and emotions, while the use of classical music dramatizes his situation. He keeps a survival diary of a plastic file, which is an example of the humanity’s increasing dependence on fake/unnatural objects even when he/she is on a desolated island with unlimited natural resources. The use of black humour is present all the way, from the presentation of Robinson Crusoe’s body such as his underwear to his clumsy ways of finding food to his ways of keeping alive for instance with the help of the Raki, which is a traditional alcoholic drink around Greece and Turkey. However, it is hard not to feel a tug of disappointment at the way the film is resolved, as it leaves not much room for further contemplation for its audiences. The underlying theme of the current digitisation of our lives is too explicit even if the film is a brand new rendering of Robinson Crusoe.

From now on the message of this movie, has 169 likes!!
Congratulations!!

Flux and re-flux. A deserted island. A (post)modern Robinson Crusoe (with a stature and clothes according to the rules of post industrialization trends) keeps - as the classical castaway - a diary.

Although he is the only inhabitant of a desert island, his way of approaching and adapting to the new situation, follows the modern reference of the individual to a world from which he was just – unwillingly – extracted from.

If the castaway history is repeating, there is a different technique of localization and visibility. The bottle message is on-air, posted online, confirming that also the castaway is nothing more than a character of the simulated space, a space in which he leaves quantifying the like(s) and share(s) given to his situation.

Clever!!!!!!!!!!

The Film was excellent!!

Very clever script, beautiful landscape and nice performing.

Nice and funny film! I like the story and of course the actor is fantastic! Well done!

The "Reply" shows with a great sense of humour the change in modern life and it definitely gives us food for thought. Excellent!!!

nice movie with unpredictable end!!!!

Very nice
the end was unexpected