“This is a very unique character in the sense that he’s bringing American culture and Italian cinema and French poetic realism into his world,” writer/director Antonis Tsonis says of his deeply unconventional principal character in the wonderfully titled Brando with a Glass Eye. “It’s integrated into his body, into his being, and he’s moving through Athens. And he appears to be even crazy to himself in moments, but he’s actually not… but he does go to the edge.”

Strangely hypnotic, visually audacious, and truly original in every way, Brando with a Glass Eye is a film that lives and exists on the edge. A richly poetic meditation on the art of acting, the lure of crime, and the crippling weight of one’s personal demons, Brando with a Glass Eye marks the feature film debut of Melbourne-based writer/director Antonis Tsonis, who has already racked up substantial praise for his two impressive shorts, The Firebird and 3000. Like the stylish and compelling 3000, Brando with a Glass Eye sees the Athens-born, Melbourne-based Tsonis return to his mother country to tell this wholly universal story.                                       Executive produced by Wayne Blair (the director of The Sapphires, Top End Wedding), Brando with a Glass Eye is the swirling tale of Greek mechanic Luca (the stunning Yiannis Niarros), an aspiring actor with a murky family history who might just have a chance at being accepted into the legendary Actors Studio in New York City. Obsessed with the inspiring words of famed acting coach Stella Adler, Luca is a young man for whom the art of performance is just about everything. But when Luca and his younger brother Alekos (the deeply moving Kostas Nikouli) engage in a poorly hatched heist, wealthy young scion Ilias (the excellent Alexandros Chrysanthopoulos) is shot and winds up in hospital. In a curious grab for redemption, Luca befriends the injured Ilias, who is totally in the dark as to who his highly theatrical and highly strung new pal really is. 

After making its bow in the US at the coveted Slamdance Film Festival, Brando with a Glass Eye is set to dazzle local audiences with screenings at The Greek Film Festival in Melbourne and Sydney in October. “Brando with a Glass Eye has much for film lovers to savour,” wrote LA Arts Beat out of Slamdance. “The script is well-crafted, with moments of quirky humour, and it takes off in unexpected directions. Of course, it’s loaded with references to other films and filmmakers, with one standout sequence featuring a surreal birthday celebration that would fit snugly into a Fellini movie.” Cineuropa’s Martin Kudlac writes “Antonis Tsonis blends US genre cinema with European arthouse sensibilities in a story exploring the interplay of ambition and redemption through a method actor who can’t live outside of a role.”    Brando with a Glass Eye will screen at The Greek Film Festival in Melbourne on 21 and 24 October, and Sydney on 23 October, with further screenings and cities to be announced soon. News of the film’s cinema release coming soon.