(Πρωινή Περίπολος)
Directed by Nikos Nikolaidis
108 minutes
In Greek with English subtitles

In a way, this is the kind of film you would assume would be legendary. It has all the earmarks of what we say we believe in - an original vision, intelligent insights, moody cinematography, sharp critiques of the modern world we are surrounded by. But when a movie really hits all those points in an uncompromised way, instead of being lauded, it's more often buried. In fact, originality works against a movie in our current distribution system, which prefers formulas that have proven to be popular in the past. And that's what the industry wants today—streamlined products that are easily mass-marketed. 

In 1987 Nikos Nikolaidis (Singapore Sling) knocked out this Greek science fiction flick. He was always one of the bad-boys in his homeland, and he would influence a new generation of filmmakers at the turn of the century called the Greek Weird Wave movement, including the works of Yorgos Lanthimos. Even within Nikos Nikolaidis' strange oeuvre, Morning Patrol brings in elements that are new to his cinema, namely an astounding array of literary citations, along with its dystopian sci-fi vision.

The story follows a woman who traverses a post-apocalyptic wasteland with the aim of entering the Forbidden Zone, an area that promises some kind of freedom amid all the desolation. The entire city is looted and hauntingly empty, except for a few bodies scattered about. Every morning a special patrol cruises the streets of the city blaring out warnings with electronic voices, and they also set traps for anyone still on the streets. The atmosphere is certainly dark, but it is also dreamy, and there is a lot of poetry conjured up by director Nikolaidis. The music soundtrack is an icy synth-score that adds to the alienated mood, and the dialogue is taken from the works of Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep), Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Ubik), Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca) and Herman Raucher (Summer of '42). Certainly a bunch of eclectic and unusual sources! 

As one viewer concludes "a heart-rending elegy for human connection in the face of rapid social atomization and an increasingly inhuman future... Combines the inventiveness of Rivette with the poetry of Tarkovsky and the punk of Jarman."