Country: Greece, Spain, Netherlands, UK
Year: 2025
Duration: 103
In the Mediterranean, Marcos Timoleon, an Aristotle Onassis-like tycoon, is throwing a lavish, extravagant birthday party for Sofia, his daughter and sole heiress, on his exclusive private island. The party is a perfect excuse for various people in his life to approach him with their own agendas. But Marcos, who is used to ruthlessly controlling everything and everyone around him at whatever cost, is also secretly plotting a big decision on his daughter’s behalf. Sofia, however, has come to share some important news of her own. As guests start pouring in and night falls, the party grows rowdier and more decadent, while the inevitable clash between Marcos and Sofia reaches a heartbreaking climax. The film participated at Green Film Lab.
Biography
film director
Miguel Ángel Jiménez
(Madrid, Spain, 1979) directed his first short film Las Huellas, a Spanish-Finnish co-production, in 2003. He founded Kinoskopik Film Produktion in 2007 and directed the fiction films Ori (2009) and Chaika (2012), an ES-GE-RU co-production that received both Eurimages support and the Eurimages Development Award, as well as the documentaries Days of El Abanico (2007) and A God in Each Lentil (2018), and the short films Khorosho (2010) and Kafenio kastello (2018). His feature Window to the Sea, starring Emma Suarez, premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and was released in late 2019. In 2025 he directed The Birthday Party, starring Willem Dafoe.
FILMOGRAFIA
Las Huellas (cm, 2003), Días de El Abanico (2008), Ori (2009), Khorosho (cm, 2010), Chaika (2012), The Night Watchman (2016), Y en cada lenteja un dios (2018), Kafenio kastello (cm, 2018), Una ventana al mar (2019), The Birthday Party (2025).
Declaration
film director
“This is an actors’ film. I tried to make sure my staging and the energy on set always served them. What a privilege it was to work with Willem Dafoe, sober and powerful, a master of stillness and presence. Watching him act is like looking at the sky, waiting for a shooting star. Even if he doesn’t move, something extraordinary always happens. Vic Carmen Sonne brought our Sofia to life - brave, nervous, intelligent, and always ready to rebel. A wild and generous force.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Miguel Ángel Jiménez. SCREENPLAY: Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Giorgos Karnavas, Nikos Panayotopoulos from the novel The Birthday Party by Panos Karnezis. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Gris Jordana. FILM EDITING: Nacho Ruiz Capillas. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Myrte Beltman. COSTUME DESIGN: Vinyet Escobar. CAST: Willem Dafoe, Vic Carmen Sonne, Emma Suárez, Joe Cole, Christos Stergioglou, Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos. PRODUCTION: Giorgios Karnavas for Heretic, Fasten Films, Lemming Film.
CONTACT: Heretic festivals@heretic.gr
