“Black Out” is a romantic drama film, directed by Menelaos Karamaghiolis, and written by Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Evgenia Liroudia, and Vassilis Vassilikos.
“Blackout”, also known as “g-LOC”, is a term for the dizzy spells which turn a pilot’s world into a stagnant black-and-white reality. But in our case, Christos, a brave Greek Air Force pilot that guards the eastern frontier of Greece with his life, and his fashion model girlfriend, Maria, will both face “blackouts”, just on a different level. The only known cure is love…
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Original Title: Black Out p.s. Red Out
IMDb rate: 5,4/10 (original version)
Cast:
Alkis Kourkoulos
Mirto Alikaki
Movie Trivia:
1. The story takes place during the 1996’s Imia Crisis, a military crisis between Greece and Turkey that led the two countries on the verge of conflict. On December 26, 1995, the Turkish cargo vessel “Figen Akat” ran aground on the easternmost point of the two islets of Imia, which belong to Greece. When a Greek tugboat approached to help, the Turkish captain insisted that the tug was in his country’s territorial waters. After the disabled vessel was eventually towed to a Turkish port, a routine salvage claim by the Greek skipper began the political wheels turning in the faraway Turkish capital of Ankara.
It was not the first time that Turkey would claim the ownership of Greek islets and islands of the Aegean. What made the Imia situation different was the way in which the situation escalated, involving the U.S., the European Union, and the political leaderships of both countries. Athens denied the Turkish sovereignty claim, citing a range of international treaties from 1923, 1932, and 1947.
In January 1996, the tension increased when a team of reporters from the newspaper Hurriyet (known for its ties with the Turkish government) were dispatched to the islet to unfurl their own country’s flag on live television. The Greek Navy intervened the next day, sailing to the islets and restoring the Greek flag. Naval vessels from both nations then sailed to the hotspot, and Turkish troops in the occupied part of Cyprus were reported to have moved closer to the island’s dividing line, prompting an alert from Greek Cypriot forces.
On January 31, the crisis claimed its first lives, as a helicopter from the Greek frigate “Navarino” crashed while on a reconnaissance mission. Three officers onboard the helicopter, Christodoulos Karathanasis, Panagiotis Vlahakos, and Ektoras Gialopsos, were killed in the mishap. Although the incident was covered up at the time, there are serious allegations the helicopter had been fired upon by Turkish forces.
It was only the shuttle diplomacy between Greece and Turkey by the U.S., as NATO’s largest military power, which halted the escalations and returned the situation to an enduring — and frosty — stalemate.
2. From 1990, till today 125 Greek pilots have lost their lives trying to intercept Turkish fighter jets which entered Greek airspace over the Aegean.
3. The present short film is an edit of the original (“Black Out p.s. Red Out”) that runs for 2 hours and 40 minutes.
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