The Journeyman
Lawrence, a hacker and corporate spy, and Ariana, an underground activist join forces to expose massive banking fraud in the Eurozone, and the corrupt manipulation of the economy of Greece. A cryptic entry in a financial account leads Lawrence (Peter Babakitis) to Zurich and Athens, where he meets the beautiful young Activist Ariana (Krystal Langevin) who has been investigating banking crimes in her country. After infiltrating a secret meeting, they uncover the existence of an international conspiracy to manipulate the economy of the Eurozone. As they get closer to the heart of the evidence they are trying to expose, assassins sent by their enemies pursue them relentlessly, culminating in the chilling confrontation between himself and the enemy (Brian Narelle) he fights to expose.
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Awards:
Five Continents International Film Festival;
Winner Best Independent Feature Film
Winner Best Original Song
Austria International Film Festival:
Winner Best Feature Thriller
Flicks Independent Film Festival:
Winner Best Actress, Feature Finalist
WRPN Womens Film Festival:
Winner Best Actress
IndieFEST:
Winner Award of Recognition
International Independent Film Awards:
Bronze Winner
The Monthly Film Festival: Finalist
The Continental Film Festival: Semi-Finalist
Accolade Global Film Competition: Lead Actor, 3 Supporting
Dumbo Film Festival-Semi-Finalist
Other Official Selection:
Five Continents International Film Festival
Euro Film Festival Geneva
NIFF London (New Indie Film Festival of London)
The IndieFEST Film Awards
WRPN Women’s International Film Festival
Madrid Film Awards
FROSTBITE International Indie Fest
Miami Independent Film Festival
A PERSONAL NOTE
It was Easter weekend in Athens, 2014, and a sauntering column of Orthodox faithfuls loomed across my path with a sprinkling of candlelight and hovering effigies borne on their shoulders. That week I witnessed a car bombing and the ensuing barricades by military police, and later, a sudden clash between protestors and riot police, complete with clubbing and tear gas, that appeared out of nowhere and vanished minutes later.
Fortunately I had my camera handy and recorded these moments. But I had no idea what had caused these events; the economic situation of Greece was not headline material for US News outlets.
So needless to say, I was intrigued. I began to research the situation with the EU and the economic stranglehold that the European Central Bank has on all the poorer (Debtor) countries and their ruthless insistence on austerity programs as a formula for bailing out the European banks that caused the crisis in the first place.
As I wandered for a couple of years through the personal stories describing the effects of this phenomenon, certain details began to accumulate that seemed to me to represent the essence of the European crisis: the anti-racist rapper who was killed by fascists; the government officials taking bribes to benefit German armament companies, and their convictions; the pressure on the Greek government to sell off national assets to foreign investors; the WWII banker who made a fortune in “aryanized” banks without ever joining the Nazi party; the boatloads of refugees crowding for a chance at survival; the billion dollar contracts with German companies for the unnecessary purchase of submarines of all things- A lot to digest.
So the forces began to take the shape in my mind as a drama of individuals in microcosm. Whereas we tend to think of political changes as sweeping policies and movements on a national scale, the reality is more like a thousand individual predicaments and ethical choices, and the passions or greed of real people.
I thought I might be able to accomplish this in the spirit of a classic political thriller in the vein of John Le Carré or Graham Greene, with my alter-ego as a witness to the hidden world of international finance and corruption, as the layers of the onion are revealed.
I created the Ariana character as an amalgam of the voices of resistance that I discovered. What struck me about the tradition of resistance was the combination of unwavering intention combined with a deep empathy for those victims, both domestic an foreign, of a badly constructed economic system that’s gone off the rails.
I didn’t want to leave the audience without a view to the future, so I have included the voices of those who have that sort of insight.
Fascism is to be resisted at all levels and in all circumstances, but in Europe we have a more complex problem in that the hope of a pan-European solidarity is being systematically attacked by forces who seek to divide and conquer the family of liberal democracies in favor of strongmen and oligarchs. Americans need to be more aware of the threat that this system poses to the future of our well being, above and beyond our domestic predicament.
-Peter Babakitis
Five Continents International Film Festival;
Winner Best Independent Feature Film
Winner Best Original Song
Austria International Film Festival:
Winner Best Feature Thriller
Flicks Independent Film Festival:
Winner Best Actress, Feature Finalist
WRPN Womens Film Festival:
Winner Best Actress
IndieFEST:
Winner Award of Recognition
International Independent Film Awards:
Bronze Winner
The Monthly Film Festival: Finalist
The Continental Film Festival: Semi-Finalist
Accolade Global Film Competition: Lead Actor, 3 Supporting
Dumbo Film Festival-Semi-Finalist
Other Official Selection:
Five Continents International Film Festival
Euro Film Festival Geneva
NIFF London (New Indie Film Festival of London)
The IndieFEST Film Awards
WRPN Women’s International Film Festival
Madrid Film Awards
FROSTBITE International Indie Fest
Miami Independent Film Festival
A PERSONAL NOTE
It was Easter weekend in Athens, 2014, and a sauntering column of Orthodox faithfuls loomed across my path with a sprinkling of candlelight and hovering effigies borne on their shoulders. That week I witnessed a car bombing and the ensuing barricades by military police, and later, a sudden clash between protestors and riot police, complete with clubbing and tear gas, that appeared out of nowhere and vanished minutes later.
Fortunately I had my camera handy and recorded these moments. But I had no idea what had caused these events; the economic situation of Greece was not headline material for US News outlets.
So needless to say, I was intrigued. I began to research the situation with the EU and the economic stranglehold that the European Central Bank has on all the poorer (Debtor) countries and their ruthless insistence on austerity programs as a formula for bailing out the European banks that caused the crisis in the first place.
As I wandered for a couple of years through the personal stories describing the effects of this phenomenon, certain details began to accumulate that seemed to me to represent the essence of the European crisis: the anti-racist rapper who was killed by fascists; the government officials taking bribes to benefit German armament companies, and their convictions; the pressure on the Greek government to sell off national assets to foreign investors; the WWII banker who made a fortune in “aryanized” banks without ever joining the Nazi party; the boatloads of refugees crowding for a chance at survival; the billion dollar contracts with German companies for the unnecessary purchase of submarines of all things- A lot to digest.
So the forces began to take the shape in my mind as a drama of individuals in microcosm. Whereas we tend to think of political changes as sweeping policies and movements on a national scale, the reality is more like a thousand individual predicaments and ethical choices, and the passions or greed of real people.
I thought I might be able to accomplish this in the spirit of a classic political thriller in the vein of John Le Carré or Graham Greene, with my alter-ego as a witness to the hidden world of international finance and corruption, as the layers of the onion are revealed.
I created the Ariana character as an amalgam of the voices of resistance that I discovered. What struck me about the tradition of resistance was the combination of unwavering intention combined with a deep empathy for those victims, both domestic an foreign, of a badly constructed economic system that’s gone off the rails.
I didn’t want to leave the audience without a view to the future, so I have included the voices of those who have that sort of insight.
Fascism is to be resisted at all levels and in all circumstances, but in Europe we have a more complex problem in that the hope of a pan-European solidarity is being systematically attacked by forces who seek to divide and conquer the family of liberal democracies in favor of strongmen and oligarchs. Americans need to be more aware of the threat that this system poses to the future of our well being, above and beyond our domestic predicament.
-Peter Babakitis
