Raw Material (Hristos Karakepelis) 2011 Greece

The film Raw Material was reviewed by Jake Horstman.

This documentary directed by Hristos Karakpelis and Writen by Hristos Karakepelis and Natasha Segou is about the harships of the people in Greece who make a living by selling metal and other junk to junk yards.

This was a very great documentary. They put it together very well, it gave you all the insights you need to know about the raw material aka junk yard life in Greece. They intereviewed different people and families and had them tell their stories about why they do this and how they ended up in this situation. They also showed how they lived and collected the items they needed to sell as well how they sold them and how the prices worked.

When the film first starts it shows a Father and his two young sons in these weird carcart type of vechiles. They were going through dumpsters and taking junk from sidewalks such as old tvs ,fridges ,washing machines, dryers and so on. They have them explain their story and why they do this. They then go to a few other families and they tell their stories as well while we watch them pick up the raw materials. After talking to a few families they show the community they live in, which was not bad as you would think, but I defiantly would not want to live in those condtions.

They then show the people delivering the junk they had gathered through out their day and take it to the junk yard where do they do no make that much. On some days they make more than others and some they make less the owenrs of the junk yards always switch the prices.

They then go back to the community where these families live and I mean it is a lot of families that live in the community but they all have their own homes with their families.

When explaining why these people did they did, some of them said it was due to the lack of education and help from the government. While others were saying they do not care about education and want to live this type of life style. But this film also showed how broken down there area of Greece is and how lucky we our to have our government even though they are shady it could be a lot worse.

I defiantly recommend people to see this move, it is very well put togehter and is a great documentary. I am defiantly going to see this again when it is either in theatres or dvd depending what happens with their deals.