Wishbone: Penny Panayotopoulou’s Raw Story of Family

Screening Date: Saturday September 27th, 2025
@ Carlton Imagine Cinemas


By: Emorphia Margaritis
Penny Panayotopoulou’s 2024 film Wishbone tells a powerful story about an often hidden reality. It explores how circumstances dictate people’s choices and the emotional weight they carry as a result.The story follows Kosta, a man of twenty-nine, still finding his way in adulthood, who has just taken a job as a security guard at a public hospital. After the sudden death of his older brother, he is forced to care for his young niece, Niki. Alongside this emotional strain, he faces the financial pressure of trying to save their family home. With no way to escape his difficult situation, a hospital porter offers him a helping hand. Desperate and out of options, Kosta accepts—only to discover that the price he must pay is far greater than he could have imagined.

At its core, this is an existential story intertwined with a pressing social issue: the malpractice of certain law firms fabricating fake medical negligence cases, exploiting people’s economic hardships and grief. While the film touches on this systemic issue, “the social issue does not stand on its own,” Penny clarifies. Her aim “wasn’t to show what goes on in hospitals,” but rather to portray “the reality of people who end up in a dead end—and what that does to them internally.” The story delicately weaves these social realities into a deeper exploration of what happens to someone who lacks the financial means to escape.
She expands on this by clarifying that, in her view, Greece’s public healthcare system is fundamentally able to function well, but due to reductions in resources and support, it is deteriorating. She follows this statement by saying, “And when something is deteriorating, it’s easier for scams to happen and for corruption to grow.”
When turning to the film’s creative process, the original screenplay, adapted from a book, was written by Kallia Papadaki. Through a series of edits, the story was further shaped by Penny’s lens, infusing it with her own perspective and sensibility. As a result, the film not only presents layered characters caught in a worst-case-scenario, life-altering situation, but also becomes a visually poetic and deeply moving story under Penny’s direction. An award-winning filmmaker best known for her 2002 film Hard Goodbyes: My Father, Penny uses mise-en-scène, blocking, and rhythm to convey emotion and meaning throughout the story. Her seamless transitions keep viewers immersed in the raw honesty of the characters and the authenticity of their experiences.

Reflecting on her artistic approach, Penny expressed that she gravitates toward telling stories that are “near to real life, but what matters most is to create something unique”—a balance she achieves through the creation of this film. By borrowing from real life and choosing to tell a story that is close to us, yet often swept under the rug, Wishbone becomes a story about family and, in its own unorthodox way, love. The honesty with which this story is told invites audiences to reflect and grow a deeper sense of sympathy and compassion for those around them.

Watch Penny Panayotopoulou’s 2024 film Wishbone as part of the Greek International Film Festival this October.

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