Loafing and Camouflage (Greek: Λούφα και Παραλλαγή, romanized: Lufa kai Paralagi; 1984) is a Greek comedy film directed by Nikos Perakis. It was followed by the motion picture Living Dangerously (Greek: BiOS + πολιτεία, romanized: BiOS + politeia; 1987), bringing the characters in a post-20 year "reunion". In 2005, Loafing and Camouflage: Sirens in the Aegean was released, bearing no relation to the first installment; instead, telling the story of a modern-day Army company. A TV series version of the movie aired for two seasons, featuring actors from the latest L&C movie in the roles of the original characters from the 1984 installment.
Contents
Plot
The film tells the story of a group of soldiers, who, during their compulsory military service in 1967 and 1968, before and during the Greek Junta, are assigned to the then-recently-founded Armed Forces Television. This TV station, founded for the civilian population, was run by the Army Cinematographic Unit which until then had only produced propaganda films and newsreels and was responsible for entertaining the troops and other charity organizations with movie screenings. The personnel was composed mostly of soldiers, who already had experience in the film business in their civilian lives, as well as those who received their training in the army.
The setting, characters and situations portrayed in the film are largely autobiographical. During his military service, Perakis helped set up the experimental Armed Forces Television station in the premises of the Hellenic Military Geographical Service, and the film shows a fictionalized account of this period.
Cast
Nikos Kalogeropoulos as Private Giannis Papadopoulos
Giorgos Kimoulis as Corporal Achilleas Lambrou
Takis Spyridakis as Private Panagiotis Balourdos
Fotis Polychronopoulos as Private Michail Karamanos, aka Karamazov
Giannis Chatziyannis as Private Petros Savidis
Paris Tselios as Private Marlafekas
Stavros Xenidis as Colonel A. Kontellis
Andreas Filippidis as Lieutenant Colonel Minas Katsampelas
Christos Valavanidis Major D. Karavidis
Antonis Theodorakopoulos as Captain
Nikos Tsachiridis as Sergeant Major
Tania Kapsali as Emmanouella Dimaki
Ifigenia Makati as Katerina Papadopoulou
Rocky Taylor as Cindy
Dimitris Poulikakos as John Papaloukas
Michalis Maniatis as Mr. Karlatos
Ira Papamichail as Soula
Vasiliki Rorri as Katsampelas's Daughter
Awards
Special Mention, 1985, Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Grand Prix, 1984, Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Best Screenplay, 1984, Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Best Actor, 1984, Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Best Editing, 1984, Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Golden Bear, Nominated, 35th Berlin International Film Festival
Sequels
The film was followed by a sequel entitled Living Dangerously (Greek: BiOS + πολιτεία, romanized: BiOS + politeia; 1987), filmed 3 years later and which, according to Nikos Perakis, complements his experiences from his service in the army at the beginning of the Dictatorship, which he could not fit into the first film.