Smuggling Hendrix

I was very hesitant going to watch this movie. I have watched a number of Cypriot-made movies, related to the partition of Cyprus and the intercommunal conflict between Greeks and Turks, some supposedly funny and some not. All of them, in varying degrees, have been pretty terrible. I am very pleased to say "Smuggling Hendrix" is the exception to the rule. The film is about the political and legal complexities and the ensuing adventures of trying to retrieve Jimi Hendrix, a mutt dog that strays into the other side. Unexpected relations develop among the protagonists from both sides of the border as inadvertently they get involved in smuggling Jimi back to home territory. It's clever, its cute, it's pleasantly watchable. First, the film makes excellent use of the scenery of the buffer zone in old Nicosia and its dilapidated old houses. The protagonists, including Jimi, criss-cross the divided city, sometimes legally and sometimes not. Second, there are no bad guys among the main characters, just a lot of politically confused, dogmatic individuals from all sides: Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, mainland Greeks, mainland Turks and...the UN. Third, this being a comedy, one does chuckle quite a bit, although it helps if one understands the peculiarities and intricacies of the Cyprus problem.