Rating: NR | Runtime: 103 minutes
Release Date: December 7th, 2025 (Greece) / June 5th, 2026 (USA)
Studio: Rosebud.21 / Quiver Distribution
Director(s): Miguel Ángel Jiménez
Writer(s): Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Giorgos Karnavas & Nikos Panayotopoulos / Panos Karnezis (novel)

We’ll do what needs to be done and carry on.

Marcos Timoleon (Willem Dafoe) tells the young Brit who’s written a manuscript about his life that he hasn’t had time to read it yet because they’ve already made a movie about him. Ian Forster (Joe Cole) jokes that he must be talking about The Godfather and filmmaker Miguel Ángel Jiménez does the same by eventually mirroring that movie’s unforgettable final shot later in his own The Birthday Party. It’s just the day of Marcos’ daughter’s birthday, not her wedding.

Adapted by Jiménez, Giorgos Karnavas, and Nikos Panayotopoulos from Panos Karnezis’ novel, the narrative itself almost takes a backseat to the aura of the moment. It’s the late 1970s on a private Mediterranean island owned by an American expat whose (ex-)wife (Emma Suárez’s Olivia) admits how his generosity always scared her more than his temper. Because it’s one thing to know Marcos is mad, but another to wonder how much beneath that smile.

We constantly find ourselves looking through the viewfinder of a camera as it takes black and white snapshots of moments no one on the guest list will want to come out to the public—actors, fascists, and capitalists alike. We also hear dialogue repeated with added noise before a reel-to-reel system clicks off either at the behest of a spy or Marcos himself—just in case he needs blackmail evidence. When power is wielded with an iron fist, paranoia abounds.

This is a fact that also follows families who believe they are closer than they are. Families led by domineering men who make decisions for their own satisfaction and tell themselves they’re making them out of love. Because Marcos admits he’s about to do something that will demand forgiveness from his daughter (Vic Carmen Sonne’s Sofia), but that she’ll gladly give it once she realizes the gift it proves. And who would ever dare tell him he’s wrong?

The truth of the matter is that many would. His best friend Patrick (Christos Stergioglou) would, so Marcos makes sure not to tell him. Olivia would, so he makes sure to promise he’ll sign whatever divorce agreement her lawyer gives him before laying out his plan. Sofia would too, if only he’d listen to what she has to say. That’s the thing about power. It’s less about people fearing you too much to speak the truth than you refusing to ever admit you’re wrong.

So, we watch the Timoleon clan and those held within their orbit move about the party with a mixture of entitlement and sycophancy. We wonder if we’re going to see just how violent Marcos can get or if those he’s planning to pay off will merely roll over and let him. Olivia tries to mediate. Marcos’ lieutenant Kostas (Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos) tries to steer people in the right direction. But it really all comes down to father and daughter.

Because despite Marcos explaining away his heinous desires as proof that he would never abandon his children like his father before him—he already has. The day his son died was the day he shut Sofia out. Partially from grief, but mostly from a misogynistic mindset that said she was always supposed to be an object of admiration rather than his successor. So, what right does he have to do what he’s trying to do? Legacy? No. It’s about control.

The other actors are all great playing their roles within the confines of this island prison and add to the moody atmosphere and, when unleashed, the unbridled jubilance afforded by the locale. Gris Jordana’s cinematography is gorgeous, the production design and costuming are superb, and Jiménez’s direction is always playing with the threat of darkness and tragedy … even if the pain endured ultimately proves more emotional than physical.

Dafoe toes that line to perfection. The outbursts, stoic rage, quiet pain, and, yes, singing. He’s kinder than he lets on, but ruthless to a fault despite it. He’d kill Sofia to get his way, but would also mourn her with genuine tears. So, you need his daughter to be just as formidable for it all to work, and Sonne is up to the task. She’s playing everyone just like he does, but better because they don’t suspect it. The question, though, is whether she’s also playing him.

The Birthday Party might not deliver anything new, but it’s a very effective drama that earns its place beside its predecessors. I can see people dismissing it as style over substance, but there’s a lot of the latter too if you let its intricacies wash over you. Its complexity simply exists in its characters rather than its plot. The performances reveal the duplicity, opportunism, and cowardice on display. And the disappointment exposes their last remnants of love.

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Emma Suárez and Willem Dafoe in THE BIRTHDAY PARTY; courtesy of Quiver Distribution.