Festival films

In the last years of their lives, the poet Nanos Valaoritis and the painter Marie Wilson lived together in an apartment in downtown Athens. Nanos Valaoritis is reflected in the cinematographic lens, weaving personal memory into space and time. A personal microcosm, containing multifaceted manifestations of a creative life.

“In 2014, on the tenth anniversary of Athens Pride, I grabbed a camera and asked the thoughts of different people in the community: was there any change? Opinion was divided, but the opinion that came last was that of Zak Kostopoulos – who was right!”: these are the words of the influential figure Maria Cyber, as she looks back at her first attempt in filmmaking. “I think things are changing, getting better. They’re also getting worse at the same time, strangely enough. There’s an increase in people who are very anti [-LGBTQI+] and those who are pro… Let’s see who’ll win in the end – we will!” Zak charmingly said to the camera held by Maria, with whom he had a friendly relationship, four years before his brutal murder.

In Greek prisons, thousands of refugees and migrants are convicted as traffickers. The internationally acclaimed rescuer Jason Apostolopoulos tries to save three innocent refugees. The first has been sentenced to 142 years in prison and the other two to 50. In a Courtroom drama that lasts over a year, will Jason and his comrades manage to free them?

Can you measure happiness? The country of Bhutan invented Gross National Happiness to do just that, and Amber is one of the agents who travels door to door to meet people and see how they feel. But he hasn’t gotten around to measuring his own happiness level. Still living with his mother at the age of 40, he’s nevertheless a hopeless romantic who dreams of finding love. But as one of the Nepali minorities who were deprived of their citizenship, Amber isn’t the most eligible bachelor. Through Amber’s bittersweet journey and encounters with Bhutanese from all walks of life, we look behind the absurdity of mathematical measurements, to explore what makes each of us happy.

Greece, 1977. A proposed law brings gay men and “transvestites” together in a historic event and sparks the creation of the first Greek LGBTQI+ movement. For the next 13 years, AKOE and its magazine Amfi, would define the way LGBTQI+ Greeks think about themselves. This film celebrates their story and legacy.

Echoing the title of a definitive film in British cinema, A Matter of Life and Death captures an equally definitive reality of British society in the nineties: the scourge of AIDS that cost thousands of people their lives. What’s it like to live and die of a “big illness with a small name”?

A vast, snow-covered forest, untouched by human presence. Two men cross it, bags on their backs, cross a frozen river and finally arrive at the peatland, a vast white expanse. For years, Yves the painter and Olivier the photographer, have traveled the world, meeting wildlife from one pole to the other, privileged and concerned witnesses to the fragile beauty of the planet. But the two men share a common dream: to see a wolf pack live, grow, and spread out. One day, their search leads them to a hideout in no-man's-land between Iceland and Russia, a place conducive to a different temporality. The wait begins. Over the seasons, they will stand there in these eight square meters of wood, silent amid an unchanging scenery, until they gradually become part of the “picture” and immerse themselves in the life of the wolves. A motionless adventure...

Wigs were vital for the rise of the Asian economy in the post-war era. In the heyday of the 1960s, it was the number four export in Hong Kong’s export-orientated industrialization. Between Mao’s China – the largest source of hair supplies, and the insatiable Western market, Hong Kong functioned as the gateway. In every wig resides a ghost from the imperial past. Departing from a 1965 United States embargo on the hair trade, known as the “Communist Hair Ban” the film is about haunting memories of Asia’s late 20th-century modernization. “Part experimental, historical documentary, part anthropological fiction, An Asian Ghost Story focuses on Hong Kong’s wig industry to shed light on ghosts; ghosts from the stories of female factory workers, and the more insidious ghosts of capitalism and colonialism. From the moment the title appears, in such a typical font, in VHS picture definition, the film pays a subtle, playful homage to Hong Kong and its film culture; which used to matter but seems, much like its territory, to be stuck in an interzone with increasingly tight borders.” (Victor Bournerias)

A gripping political thriller along with a reflection on the notion of democracy, power dynamics, political institutions, and the electoral process itself, And So it Begins guarantees you will be watching it on the edge of your seat quite literally. The film is set during the last months of Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency of the Philippines, a regime accused of illiberal tendencies, violence, and corruption. Amid the election campaign, Maria Ressa and Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the two primary opponents could not be any more different. The first comes from a grassroots movement and speaks directly to the everyday people, promising justice and freedom while the latter, as the former dictator’s son, preaches the glory of a past that was less than stellar for some, structuring his campaign around a name that carries weight (in more than one way). Ramona Diaz follows the path to the ballot box step by step, drawing us into its feverish pace and delivering an urgent, significant film that showcases the importance of voting, as well as the invaluable presence of people still capable of inspiring hope.

Away from the bustle of the world, in the heart of the dark Norwegian woods, Maria and Nik are raising their four children in complete harmony with nature, seeking a more fulfilling existence at a more relaxed pace. However, Maria’s unexpected passing will upend the family’s tranquility and expose them to new challenges, the biggest of which includes their unavoidable return to “civilization.” This documentary by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen (whom we were first introduced to through the remarkable Faith Can Move Mountains) transforms us into members of the family, making us privy to the tenderness, love, and sorrow that this family experiences within its core. Through these new challenges and the idyllic moments of the past, captured by the lens of Maria's camera, the film delicately and insightfully explores the ties that bind and how to navigate loss, along with our precarious relationship with nature and our responsibility to the planet, in a film that is both disarmingly simple yet extremely complex at the same time.

When he was four years old, Maria Callas took him into her arms and danced with him. At the age of twenty, long after she had departed, he began to discover her work and grew fascinated by her. He never went on holiday; every cent he made was put aside to buy recordings, books, photos, posters, and programs related to her, and money was always short. As he grew older, as he worked two jobs to make ends meet, with his misfortunes, romantic disappointments, jealous friends, and an accident that led to ten surgeries and disability, his collection grew bigger. Haunted by the two women in his life – his mother who died too young and the Diva, his constant reference and reverence – he grew and found fulfillment along with his collection. Now he feels serene, enjoying many joys and memories of his life, dreaming of the afternoon his mother will knock on his door, to share a cup of coffee. He would sacrifice everything for that moment; even his own collection.

April, a 5-year-old English girl is unhappy that she is being forced to move to France. Shortly after the relocation, together with her parents she pays a visit to the village where her great-grandfather lived. April is convinced that her great-grandfather is sleeping in the graveyard and that sometime in the future he will return to meet her. A glimpse of the world through the innocent gaze of childhood is a kind of magic – a condition that transforms everything thanks to the sweeping power of imagination. This brings to mind what Pablo Picasso used to say; how “every child is an artist,” while adding that "the problem is how to remain an artist after one grows up." Young April’s father provides the answer to the question through this wonderful film, vibrating with the beauty of purity. A documentary whose inspiration is to delve into things from the point of view of a child – that of a born artist for whom the world evermore remains both enchanting and miraculous.

A documentary by Michael Kamakas, highlighting the contribution of the Vlach-speaking Greeks during important moments in Greek history, whilst calling attention to the question: How can the word “Vlachos” be used with the derogatory connotation "vlachos" and be intertwined with the uncouth, the peasant, the uncivilized...

A few shacks built on the hillside on the fringe of society and without men. A place of refuge, of collective and feminist transformation. From this edge, alongside those who build it, the filmmaker questions their place in nature and society, as well as the freedom of their body and the prospect of having a child. Openly alluding to Virginia Woolf’s famous quote (“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction") and introducing us to a bouquet of incredible, uncompromised female characters, an investigative yet tender camera challenges the boundaries of gendered social roles and immerses in the micro-universe of absolute freedom and self-determination.

Félix, a young, melancholic and secretive shepherd, leads a surprisingly timeless life. He lives alone and works along his father to raise the family herd. From autumn to spring, he looks after his animals, feeds them and keeps them in the dense forests of holm oaks of French Pre-Alps. In the summer, he travels on foot for more than two hundred kilometres, leaving his father to lead the herd to the mountains pastures, in the High Alps Ubaye valley. There, he lives far from everything for many long months, in a mineral and inaccessible world where an invisible being prowls: the wolf. Against the tide of his time, Félix has chosen a profession that isolates him and keeps him out of the world. Still, he accepts the company of a curious filmmaker, as he tries to understand what this loneliness is made of. Α melancholic ode that ponders upon the phrase homo homini lupus, only to conclude that a human can also become a lamb that takes away the sins of this world.

On an island of eight square kilometers on the open seas of the Danish Wadden Sea, within a tidal zone of the North Sea, its remaining 27 residents are completely in tune with nature’s vibrations. However, they still find themselves constantly fearing the destruction looming (quite literally) on the horizon. Even though everyday life in Mandø has always been dependent on the appetites of the savage weather, the island used to be the ultimate tourist destination for numerous naturalists from all over the world, as it was home to a rare bird species. Nowadays, as sea levels rise and extreme weather phenomena accompany climate change, the human species seems to have flown away – but then the soul of the place and its people still thrives in its particular way. The Scandinavian natural landscape and its human counterpart have been captured only but a handful of times in recent cinema history in such an evocative and intricate manner, whereas the snapshots of the everyday life of the generation that lives on the island is already part of world film anthology.

At a time when even the ends of the earth have been captured either on paper or terabytes, are there any unchartered territories left? When there is nearly nothing left to discover on the planet’s surface, how will humans find an outlet for their innate need to explore? Profound existential questions such as these emerge from Andrea Gatopoulos’ film, which at first glance seems like the portrait of David Rumsey, a near-obsessive map collector. Rumsey, apart from his tangible, paper collection, has also amassed another one; one that is digital, existing on the online platform Second Life, a space transcending its function as an archive, as he himself calls it a poem. Similarly, the film serves not only as a documentary about Rumsey, but also as a pretext for mapping out a fervent passion, an enticing fixation, a query on the anxiety surrounding notions such as heritage, legacy, as well as the meaning of life itself.

An evocative journey to a small Slovenian village turns into an enchanting immersion into the collective memory and the backbone of a certain place through stories from the present and the past that converge, intermingle, coexist outside of time, in the plane of the unseen, in the sphere of sentiments. With photographs, taken by photographer Stojan Kerbler decades ago, of the village and its residents serving as a guide, the film crafts the portrait of a place through narrations, images, poetry and pure cinematic beauty. It may not be easy to describe how “a tree grows in dreams” in just a handful of words, but you can be sure that seeing it is nothing less than an experience beyond a mere viewing, something you experience like a dream or a caress, like a song that glides from your ears straight to your heart.

Avant-Drag! offers an exhilarating look at ten drag performers in Athens who deconstruct gender, nationalism, belonging, identity, while facing police brutality, transphobia and racism.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country with strict social mores and traditional values, gender-affirming operation is legal. Over twenty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious edict) making gender transition permissible for “diagnosed transgenders.” Yet same-gender sexual orientation is still punishable by death. Highly feminine and attracted to members of the same sex, yet forced to live in secret for fear of retribution, a generation of young Iranian men are adopting an identity legally allowed to them– transgender. In pursuit of what one man calls simply, “a decent life,” they flock to the country’s best-established gender-affirming surgeon, Dr. Bahram Mir Jalali, and are counseled by 24-year-old Vida, a post-op woman who claims to be “reborn” but warns of dangers that still await. Be Like Others is a fascinating look at those on the fringes of Iranian life – those looking for acceptance through the most radical of means.

22-year-old Mikel, child of immigrant parents from Albania, is deported with little provocation and accelerated procedures from the USA; the only country he has gotten to know as home. From one moment to the next his family gets divided across the two sides of the Atlantic. While his 11-year-old sister wants to follow him, the reality that awaits him in his native country is utterly different from the one he is used to. And although Mikel never stops fighting for his return to America, his studies, his friends, and his girlfriend, the question emerging is whether ultimately this is the singular version of the future he dreams of. Honoring the title of their film to the highest degree, Kreshnik Jonuzi and Saevar Gudmundsson craft a genuine study on the meaning of “belonging,” its fluidity, and the revisions it must undergo as needed by the de facto circumstances, in a world operating in a manner that is cynical, unyielding, as well as impersonal.