THE PRIVATE RIGHT
Onyx Films UK
Producer/Director/Original Screenplay: Michael Papas
Cast: Dimitri Andreas - George Kafkaris - Tamara Hinchco - John Brogan - Charlotte Selwyn - Seraphim Nicola
English and Greek dialogue, 35mm, B & W, 1.85, running time 87 minutes
LONDON FILM FESTIVAL - SAN FRANCISCO FILM FESTIVAL - THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - PESARO FESTIVAL OF NEW CINEMA - BRIGHTON FESTIVAL - FESTIVAL OF BRITISH FILMS IN PARIS
Certificate of Merit - London Film Festival
Producer/Director/Original Screenplay: Michael Papas
Cast: Dimitri Andreas - George Kafkaris - Tamara Hinchco - John Brogan - Charlotte Selwyn - Seraphim Nicola
English and Greek dialogue, 35mm, B & W, 1.85, running time 87 minutes
LONDON FILM FESTIVAL - SAN FRANCISCO FILM FESTIVAL - THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - PESARO FESTIVAL OF NEW CINEMA - BRIGHTON FESTIVAL - FESTIVAL OF BRITISH FILMS IN PARIS
Certificate of Merit - London Film Festival
The film tells the story of an EOKA guerrilla fighter who comes to London to exact revenge on the collaborator who betrayed him to the British Army during the liberation struggle in Cyprus. It was the first truly independent film made in the UK "outside the system" at a time when the Technicians’ Unions ruled the British film industry and fiercely opposed the making of the film, even interfering with the laboratories. The film was shot on the streets of London guerrilla-style, and in the Surrey countryside. Financed privately and by the National Film Finance Corporation, it was selected to represent Great Britain at the London Film Festival.
It raised a political storm due to scenes exposing the British Colonial Army engaging in water-boarding torture in Cyprus, and was debated in the House of Commons, but was unanimously acclaimed by the British critics and went on to represent the UK at other festivals (see above). It was also invited to the Sydney and Melbourne Film festivals but Michael Papas withdrew it when the Australian censor demanded cuts. The film represented Cyprus at the Thessaloniki International Film festival.
“THE PRIVATE RIGHT” was released in the UK by London Independent Producers (Distribution) Ltd., and by Janus Films in the US. It was sold internationally by Alliance International and shown in many European countries but was banned in France after the 1968 events and the scheduled opening in Paris cancelled.
It raised a political storm due to scenes exposing the British Colonial Army engaging in water-boarding torture in Cyprus, and was debated in the House of Commons, but was unanimously acclaimed by the British critics and went on to represent the UK at other festivals (see above). It was also invited to the Sydney and Melbourne Film festivals but Michael Papas withdrew it when the Australian censor demanded cuts. The film represented Cyprus at the Thessaloniki International Film festival.
“THE PRIVATE RIGHT” was released in the UK by London Independent Producers (Distribution) Ltd., and by Janus Films in the US. It was sold internationally by Alliance International and shown in many European countries but was banned in France after the 1968 events and the scheduled opening in Paris cancelled.
NEW - A TRIBUTE TO PETER BROOK
02.07.2022
In 1965 the Catch 22 of the British film unions was in full effect, i.e. you could not make a film if you were not a member of the union, and could not become a union member unless you were already working in film.
As a 23-year-old, passionate about filmmaking, I raised funds, obtained the abandoned Round House to use as location and production studio, employed students from my ex-school, the London Film School, and started shooting. That is when the trouble with the Unions started. Arnold Wesker, the well-known playwright, introduced me to Peter Brook, who was horrified that the film laboratories - as a result of union action - confiscated the negative I had shot so far and refused to process any further film, thus effectively putting a stop to production of the first ever truly independent film made in the UK outside the system.
Peter Brook promised that he and Arnold Wesker would talk to the Unions and do whatever was required so that I could continue making the film. I know that he confronted the Unions head-on. The last time I met him was at the London theatre where he was rehearsing, when he gave me the news that the Unions had succumbed and that I could finish my film, on condition that I became a member of ACTT with Peter Brook and Arnold Wesker as my sponsors. Which is what happened.
The film I am referring to was THE PRIVATE RIGHT, which was chosen instead of Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 to represent the UK at the London Film Festival. The rest, as they say, is history. Peter Brook was so impressed by the film that he offered my cameraman, Ian Wilson, the job of lighting his next film, “Tell Me Lies”.
I thought this story was worth revealing, for the very first time, to show my appreciation of Peter Brook and give proof of his real interest and genuine concern to take up cudgels on behalf of a first-time filmmaker.
Peter Brook 1925 - 2022
One of the absolute discoveries of the festival... ‘THE PRIVATE RIGHT’, made entirely in Britain, half in English, half in Greek. From an almost documentary opening Michael Papas modulates through a beautifully managed and for once altogether aesthetically justified scene of violence to a dream-like study of obsession... Its young maker manages his box of tricks with striking skill and control, and the image he presents of a weirdly unfamiliar nightmare London in which the traitor is tracked down and executed is powerfully haunting...” THE TIMES OF LONDON
“...a very clever and concerned young man`s film ... technically accomplished. Mr. Papas is a find.” THE NEW STATESMAN
“Intensely dramatic, imaginatively photographed and edited. On the evidence of this film Michael Papas proves himself to have a wonderful and exciting talent coupled with the invaluable ability to bring out the best work in his team. Even without the aid of dialogue he makes his storyline clear and although he employs many camera tricks they are invariably pertinent to the point he is making. No cleverness for the sake of cleverness – so often a seemingly irresistible fault with young directors. I look forward with interest to the day when Michael Papas makes a thriller for the mass audience. When that day comes, Hitchcock will have to look to his laurels. THE DAILY CINEMA (now Screen International)
“...a very clever and concerned young man`s film ... technically accomplished. Mr. Papas is a find.” THE NEW STATESMAN
“Intensely dramatic, imaginatively photographed and edited. On the evidence of this film Michael Papas proves himself to have a wonderful and exciting talent coupled with the invaluable ability to bring out the best work in his team. Even without the aid of dialogue he makes his storyline clear and although he employs many camera tricks they are invariably pertinent to the point he is making. No cleverness for the sake of cleverness – so often a seemingly irresistible fault with young directors. I look forward with interest to the day when Michael Papas makes a thriller for the mass audience. When that day comes, Hitchcock will have to look to his laurels. THE DAILY CINEMA (now Screen International)
Death of a guerrilla fighter in "The Private Right"
“Crisp action scenes at the beginning, fierce gunplay and then a rugged torture scene as the hero is almost killed in a cell by the informer. It denotes a highly colourful and inventive stylist in director Michael Papas.” VARIETY (U.S.A.)
“One of the more encouraging discoveries of last year`s London Festival opens [in London] this week... A highly personal and vigorous film... Papas is particularly successful in relating the external conditions which menace the characters to their interior fears...” THE FINANCIAL TIMES
“Michael Papas shows that he can already use the screen to startling effect. A striking debut.” THE SUNDAY TIMES
George Kafkaris as the hooded informer in "The Private Right"
“Through its weird, elliptical story of a man`s obsessive quest for revenge, this astonishing first feature (the director is a young Greek) creates exactly the same sense of dislocation and intangible fear as Rivette`s ‘Paris Nous Appartient’. Set partly in Cyprus and partly in London, but shot entirely in Britain, it begins coolly with an almost documentary sequence of guerrilla warfare. Then the mood shifts, a pattern begins to take shape, and one suddenly realises that what one is watching is a brilliant, perfectly controlled set of variations on the theme of obsession.” TOM MILNE: LONDON FILM FESTIVAL CRITIC`S CHOICE
"The film opens with a sustained battle between guerillas and British troops in a Cyprus landscape. It’s a typical mopping-up operation. It’s also a nightmare, a primal scene of pursuit and escape which terrorises our dreams. From the very start, Papas hits this ambiguous level, between documentary and nightmare....
...achieves a heraldic theatrical power... This is astonishing for a first feature." MICHAEL KUSTOW: SIGHT & SOUND
Tamara Hinchco and Dimitri Andreas in "The Private Right"
“In his first film Michael Papas displays an astonishing virtuosity in the mechanics of film-making. Here, one feels, is a director eager to experiment with film form, and able to do it with authority. ...Michael Papas displays a sense of conviction and a flair for cinema that mark him as a director of real promise.”
DAVID WILSON: BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE`S MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN
“In Britain “THE PRIVATE RIGHT” has become a minor cause celebre... the film which Sight & Sound Magazine called “the most striking and accomplished film made in this country since 'It Happened Here'” was directed by Michael Papas... I prefer Michael Papas`s more elliptical, fantastic visualisation of sociopolitical behaviour to Pontecorvo`s (’Battle of Algiers’) broad canvas and huge brushstrokes. ‘THE PRIVATE RIGHT’ is not essentially a political film or a war film either but a profoundly disturbing, elegiac study of a revenge ritual. As a first film made by a young director with a student crew (from the London School of Film Technique where Papas also studied) the film has a high professional gloss.” FILM QUARTERLY UCLA
DAVID WILSON: BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE`S MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN
“In Britain “THE PRIVATE RIGHT” has become a minor cause celebre... the film which Sight & Sound Magazine called “the most striking and accomplished film made in this country since 'It Happened Here'” was directed by Michael Papas... I prefer Michael Papas`s more elliptical, fantastic visualisation of sociopolitical behaviour to Pontecorvo`s (’Battle of Algiers’) broad canvas and huge brushstrokes. ‘THE PRIVATE RIGHT’ is not essentially a political film or a war film either but a profoundly disturbing, elegiac study of a revenge ritual. As a first film made by a young director with a student crew (from the London School of Film Technique where Papas also studied) the film has a high professional gloss.” FILM QUARTERLY UCLA
Water-boarding scene in "The Private Right"
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