Apples is a fascinating look at how memory works

It strikes without notice. Anyone who becomes infected with it, loses his memory in one fell swoop. Yet there is very little panic in Greek film apples, which shows how an epidemic disease robs people of their memories. The patients seem to resign themselves to their fate and society is already set up for it: victims are calmly transported to a clinic, where an attempt is made to discover their identity.

Aris, a middle-aged man, is one of the unfortunate patients who are brought in without an ID. No one comes looking for him. Maybe he has no family, maybe they were also affected by the mysterious epidemic – who knows? For Aris, it means there’s no going back: if no one remembers who he was, he can only become someone else.

To start over, he follows a special program that provides housing and a step-by-step introduction to public life. ‘Go to a club to dance’, Aris is told, for example. Or: ‘Catch a bass’. He also receives a Polaroid camera and a scrapbook to record his newly formed memories.

Director and screenwriter Christos Nikou’s feature debut is unusual, and not just because of its surprising subject matter. Like main character Aris, the film remains an enigma for a long time. Is it a comedy? A thriller? A romantic drama? Perhaps the humble Aris is being abused by his therapists, who after all have the power to mold his personality. It could also be that he bumps into the love of his life. The epidemic is not only a source of sadness. A clean slate can be a blessing.

With his dryly humorous humor and absurdist situations, apples to the Greek ‘weird wave’ created by director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster† The Favorite) was perfected. But Nikou, who started his career as an assistant to Lanthimos, is not an imitator. His film has its own tone: lighter, less disconnected from reality, warm-blooded.

As long as the story can go either way, the dreamy film is at its best, but Nikou also has a beautiful final chord up its sleeve, in which he cleverly leaves out whether Aris is experiencing a nightmare or has found an escape route. The meticulously made apples is a fascinating reflection on how memory works: what do we remember and why, what do we prefer to get rid of? What would it be like to start from scratch again?