Getting Their Goats
摘要
Goats are widely read as iconic signifiers of traditional, authentic, rural, raw, and occasionally backwards Greekness/Mediterraneanness. The concluding chapter herds some bullied, abused, sacrificed, weird, hybridised, loved, and revered goats from a distinctively diverse array of Greek and Greek-directed films, from Zorba the Greek (1964) to Poor Things (2023), from Athina Rachel Tsangari to Nico Mastorakis, from neo-noir and giallo to avant-garde shorts, and from shoestring budgets to state-of-the-art technology. While partially reproducing some of the species’ supposed characteristics or connotations (wildness, untameability), illuminating interviews with directors/screenwriters, human actors, producers, and animal wranglers and handlers paint affective, original, behind-the-scenes portraits of the photogenic caprine stars.