GIFFT FEATURE: SGT FRUIT FLY

Emorphia Margaritis
Tommy King, the Greek Canadian writer-director, and producer of this quirky, coming of age, dramedy takes us on the journey of a young boy trying to navigate the world around him while constantly being targeted and bullied. Tommy King’s feature film debut ‘Sgt Fruit Fly’ will be screened at the Greek International Film Festival Tour of Canada.
The film’s storyline is about Stanley, a 16-year-old boy starting his journey with a simple goal; getting a new bicycle so he can stop being bullied by the Dumpskis. As the story progresses, Stanley’s journey takes on a much deeper meaning. Having to deal with bullies, horrible bosses, and the absence of a father figure, he must somehow find the courage to face his fears by learning how to believe in himself.
Jamie Mayers, who portrayed the character of Stanley, described his character's journey as being driven by wanting to answer the question: ‘who am I?’. What really gravitated him toward the role is the fact that the story is about self-discovery through finding the courage to believe in yourself and doing the right thing no matter how many people are against you.
Tommy’s inspiration behind this story is rooted within his past experiences, ‘I wrote it because I witnessed bullying all around me’. Having witnessed bullying in many forms and in close perimeters, his aim was to create a film that would inspire people to believe in themselves and stand up for themselves. His goal was to also draw attention to the cycle of bullying, and he used the character of Leslie Dumpski, portrayed by Nikki Skiadaresi, to showcase it.
‘Tommy played with the clichés’, Nikki continued to say, ‘he pursued them with sensitivity in order to rediscover them’. Portraying fleshed-out and honest characters built from clichés was one of the main reasons Nikki wanted to jump on board along with many other well-known actors like; Makis Papadimitriou, Dimitris Alexandris, Mara Marini, Bessy Malfa as well as NiVO, who did a cameo performance in the film.
Beside getting to watch these incredible performances by well-known Greek actors, another exciting feature about the film circles around the fact that it’s not your typical coming of age story. It combines different genres by infusing action, drama, comedy, and elements of fantasy making it an entertaining and fun watch for the audience.
Tommy King's ‘Sgt Fruit Fly' manages to address a massively serious issue in a light-hearted and humorous way that leaves the viewers with an important message about finding courage and believing in yourself. To find out more about when the film will be screened at the festival visit:
www.gifft.ca.

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