Festival films

Christos, Nikos, Thanassis and Marinos were the music band 4 Levels of Existence. Once separated, here they are now, just the three of them, reuniting after 40 years. The reason is their one and only album, which had an incredible journey from the shelves of the Athenian record shops to the hands and ears of Kanye West and Jay-Z.

A thin strip of land in the Baltic Sea, half of which belongs to Lithuania and half to Russia, is home to a macabre tourist attraction. A dying forest of leafless trees, overtaken by thousands of great cormorants, ruining the area with their acid-fortified feces. A fascinating documentary, with mesmerizing aerial shots from a bird’s perspective and photographic images as if out of a post-apocalyptic horror film. But, what has actually led to so grand a destruction?

A thrilling journey into the realm of creative inspiration and the artistic process. PJ Harvey and famous photographer Seamus Murphy travel to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington DC as to collect words and images. Back home in London, their findings become poems and songs. A new journey, even more fascinating, begins. The camera sneaks into the specially constructed room behind one-way glass and documents the recording of an album that transforms life into art.

Lea Tsemel is a Jewish-Israeli lawyer who has represented Palestinian defendants in court for nearly 50 years, without prejudice: from feminists to fundamentalists; from non-violent demonstrators to armed militants. A touching portrait of a woman who dedicated her life to the quest for justice, a tireless defender of human rights.

Solomon Juxon-Smith, whose father was head of state of Sierra Leone, is a grocery store employee in New York and a political refugee. A Forgotten Past narrates the story of how Solomon and his family went from West African ruling class to disappearing into the complete anonymity of life in the US.

For decades, famous Swiss traveler, photographer and filmmaker René Gardi (1909-2000) recorded in his archives a distorted image of the African continent and its inhabitants. Confirming the European imaginary which projected Africa as a supposedly idyllic paradise, a land not spoiled by modernity, Gardi’s work formed the view of many generations in the German-speaking countries and far beyond. A documentary that reveals how visual representation and the production of racial stereotypes can serve as a form of colonialism, a mirror that reflects back to those who look into it a twisted image.

A film about the life and work of Angelos Katakouzinos – a distinguished and pioneer neuropsychiatrist, member of the French Academy of Sciences, who opened new avenues and produced significant work in his field. At the same time, he was associated with the intellectual and artistic activity of the so-called “Generation of the 30s” as an integral part of it.

A man falls into the sea to swim 140 kilometers. His dream is to put Kastellorizo, the easternmost island of Europe, back on the Greek map. This journey will teach us how to succeed until we fail and how to start fighting, once we fail and until we succeed again.

“I wonder, did I live well or did I waste the amount of time given to me?” Important people, standing on the cusp of their life, bestow their precious essence of wisdom on us, while we follow the course of a child alongside a small wooden boat floating in the water: from the springs of a river to the mouth of the sea, corresponding to Man’s voyage from birth to death.

“This film introduces an ordinary poor peasant’s family. We follow the relation between the family members, how in such misery men are capable of adapting themselves in order to survive, how even in the middle of nothing children manage to grow up... It’s an inhuman world where these young human beings live like animals, yet at the same time so human as the bond that exists between them helps them cope with life. The image of modernity, of economic development, and of an almost occidental world that China is presenting nowadays has slowly made the other side – the human side – disappear from our sight.” Wang Bing

“Amygdaliá” is a tree that blooms just before spring. It is also the word that haunts the director as a child, when she first arrives in greece. Her experiences merge with those of other women as they play with borders, both around them and inside us, carving out space in an off-limits mediterannean postcard.

The film is a journey in Greek and Western history from the 1929 crash to today, in the light of economic greed. Rarely seen film footage and unconventional interviews retrace the imprints it leaves on societies and the relations it builds between human beings.

A taxidermist, a deer farmer and a museum employee guide us around a bizarre world, in which the line between reality and artificiality becomes imperceptible. Set up in fabricated nature’s glass-case, resembling their heart-beating “before,” the exhibited animals won’t stop observing us. The lifelike impression gradually gets stronger, only to collapse abruptly as reality kicks in. A movie that grasps, as the title implies, the soul of the animals.

Through the lecture that former presidential candidate Al Gore has given over a thousand times to audiences worldwide, the film presents the dangers of global warming. A campaign to raise public awareness of the climate change crisis. A call for immediate action addressed to those in power as well as each and every citizen as an individual so that the planet does not reach the point of no return.

A few months before the declaration of independence of Angola, a fierce civil war rages on. Ryszard Kapuściński, a Polish journalist, jeopardizes his life each and every day in order to be the only reporter worldwide to achieve a daily recording of the brutal reality. Dynamic animation is intertwined with archival material, urging the audience to reflect upon what boldly becomes obvious: a tragedy can be captured in its entirety only if one engages personally in the tragic events.

In a deserted village of the Cyclades, a story is written on the rocks...

The documentary looks at Arvanitika, in an effort to preserve this dying language and find out who the people that speak this language are and what their role has been in Greek history. Wandering around a village where Arvanitika is still spoken, we discover a special culture: strong women, a certain stubbornness and a distinctive sense of humor.

In the rehabilitation unit of an Athenian trauma hospital, victims of serious accidents struggle to walk again... or at least return to an autonomous existence. Divided between hope and acceptance, they offer us a glimpse into the depths of human condition.

Gioula lives a simple life on her olive farm somewhere on the Greek coast. When a golf resort destined for wealthy foreigners threatens to change her entire world, she fights back. In times of economic crisis, development pressure is intense. All Gioula wants is a simple life.

Aunt Nelly. The sea. Her love for boats. For the trip. “No matter what I’d choose to study, I would still make something with my hands. It’s in my nature,” she recounts.

An Olympic flame of hope burning defiantly as a symbolic gesture of reclaiming the past. A feature documentary amalgamating the cinematic tradition of biker film with historical memory and athletics. The movie follows eleven modern day motor bikers who embarked in the summer of 2015 on a mission to carry the Maccabiah torch from Tel Aviv to Berlin’s infamous Olympic Stadium, where the European Maccabi Games are held. This gripping motorcycle journey spans more than 4,500 km, blending historical events with personal revelations in a sobering remembrance of a time gone by, yet fearful still, as anti-Semitism is once again on the rise.