SYNOPSIS

703AD, Byzantium. Peaceful and good-natured Prodromos is accused of heresy and sentenced to 24 hours of mandatory prayer, locked in a medieval pillory. An Arab raid in the area makes the law officials forget to release him.

Alone in the middle of nowhere and unable to move, Prodromos despairs. He seeks help from a set of passers- by: a conservative family, a burning flock of sheep, an injured invader, a gang of shoeless children.

As chances of survival become slimmer, Prodromos needs to make peace with his impending death.

INTENTION

Historical films tend to be associated with large productions, elaborate sets and conservative storytelling. Unorthodox aims to turn this tradition around, attempting a minimalist, existential comedy that explores a distant past to playfully discuss the paradoxes of our present.

The world of the Byzantine Empire, filled with absurd theological conflicts, punishments and superstitions, seems alien. Yet today’s newsfeed is saturated with religious fanaticism, senseless violence, grotesque politics. Is history a repetition of the same power-play with different actors, director and sets?

Unorthodox allows for more than one interpretation of what is on screen. Can a situation be simultaneously perceived as desperate and funny, threatening and casual, brutal and tender, spiritual and silly? Bringing contradictory elements in the same narrative space can peel off the layers of fact and reveal what lies under its surface.

The film is an inverted road-movie: pilloried Prodromos remains immobile, while the rest of the world travels around him, presenting us its different ideologies and posing the question: can we retain hope in a world that is going to shit?