Festival films

The Thessaloniki Film Festival, in collaboration with COSMOTE TV, presents a special screening of the first three episodes of the series 17 Threads, produced by COSMOTE TV. In the first episode “May everyone remember you,” we meet Antonis Gerakitis, a young and talented cobbler and lyre player. He lives in Cythera with his poor but proud parents, who send him to work alongside Derkos, the most renowned cobbler on the island. At a wedding celebration, where Kastelanis plays the lyre, he will catch sight of Anna, and the two will fall in love at first sight. In the second episode, “Mentor's legacy,” Kastelanis becomes the island’s first cobbler. His success does not go unnoticed and besides earning admiration from the townsfolk, it also fuels jealousy. Skaleris envies his success. Kastelanis’s mother meets with the island’s matchmaker, who sends her to Anna’s house... In the third episode, “Water Under the Bridge,” Kastelanis is at a loss about how to deal with Skaleris’s accusations, especially as the island starts to buzz with nasty rumors about him. Anna's father has made a decision regarding his daughter's engagement to Kastelanis.

What would you do if you had 21 days left to live? What do you think you could do? This is a daring film, disturbingly honest, with a chilling melancholy to it, almost uncomfortable to view. Audacious, impulsive, and courageous, the filmmaker stands naked, laying it all out. Do we dare to look? Do you dare to listen when one addresses you so daringly?

Two inseparable identical unhearing twin brothers in their thirties, after they discover that due to a genetic disease, they will progressively, but irreversibly go blind, struggle emotionally to give to their intolerable existential conditions a different twist. Slowly immersing into an unbearable silenced darkness, not being able to see the world and each other anymore, only with a high-spirited young woman by their side, the two siblings have to make a strong decision around a cup of coffee with new shoes on. The daily repetitive movements of the characters, minimal, intense and bodily dialogues in tactile sign language condense strong cinematic emotions, while cold colors baths help to unfold the poetic and reflective gloominess of the story. This unique and existential story is a meticulous, sensible, penetrating and challenging drama on brotherhood, love and communication, which transforms into a cinematic allegory on the very limits of cinema itself. No image! No sound! No speech!

“Brimming with desire, I multiply my sexual encounters with men. But between my desires and the nights I experience, there is a chasm. So I write and make films.”

Sandy is a drama school graduate and has asthma. Tonight she will be performing at the theater. Before that, she has to teach a yoga class, work as a clown, and go to an audition. In this equation, she somehow has to try and fit in her boyfriend Spiros.

Set against the backdrop of a seaside town threatened by encroaching wildfires, Christian Petzold’s latest is a breezy, often funny, yet emotionally layered melodrama of creative and romantic insecurities along the German Riviera. The film centers around Leon, a disgruntled novelist struggling to finish his manuscript while traveling with his photographer friend to a vacation home near the Baltic Sea, where they’re met by an unexpected third house guest, whose presence distracts Leon as much as it cringingly exposes his self-obsessed bubble. Full of sunkissed tints and nocturnal blues, Afire finds the director operating with a deceptively light touch, but what starts as a hangout comedy gradually opens up into something entirely more surprising and psychologically complex.

Five childhood friends from a small Montenegrin town have gradually moved away to different corners of former Yugoslavia, yet they remain in contact, aware that their long-time friendship continues to play a fundamental role in their lives. This episodic, understated film allows viewers to follow one year of their lives as they falter and try to find their place in the world; the protagonists also experience defining moments, when they come to realise that they can no longer escape adulthood. In his inspired debut, director Ivan Bakrač delivers a spirited testimony of the young post-war generation who still have the shadow of the past hanging over them. The authentic tone of the individual episodes is reinforced by an agreeably fitting performance from the five talented young actors. A story of a vanishing world, a nostalgic and humorous ode to friendship and youth.

Mary is 11 years old and has an insuppressible passion for cooking: She dreams of becoming a great chef. Her grandmother Emer, with whom she has a very special relationship, encourages her to make this dream come true. But every path has its pesky obstacles, and facing them turns into quite an adventure. Mary thus begins a journey across the barriers of time, in which four generations of women come together and get to know each other truly and deeply. A delicate coming-of-age story, sprinkled with irony.

In this short film – the forerunner of the feature that won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, we are drawn into the interiors of several houses during the evening. They are all deserted except for one, which is inhabited by a group of young soldiers, played by some teens from Nabua. Two of them impersonate the director by narrating the film. A personal letter describing the director’s Nabua to Uncle Boonmee.

A fantastic adventure with thrilling action. Fifty fantastic characters in fifty amazing locations. Who’s chasing whom? Where is Happiness? Where is Aglaia? Why do we live? Why do we love?

Miserable after her family moves to a small town, teenage aspiring journalist Itsy befriends Calvin, her strange, space-obsessed neighbor who believes his parents were abducted by aliens, and joins him on his journey to find them. A lighthearted yet touching family narrative set against the backdrop of the beautiful Utah landscape, this is a story about embracing what makes us different, finding belonging, and staying true to ourselves.

Tender caresses and enveloping embraces are portals into the life of Mack, a Black woman in Mississippi. Winding through the anticipation, love, and heartbreak she experiences from childhood to adulthood, the expressionist journey is an ode to connection — with loved ones and with place. Raven Jackson’s striking debut is an assured vision, unafraid to immerse us in moments of grief and longing, or within the thickness of things left unsaid. Her camera is patient and loving, capturing the beauty of Black bodies and life. Rural quietness is filled with the transportive sounds of crickets, frogs, and water in its many forms. Jackson's nontraditional narrative borrows from the language of memory. Dialogue is restrained, and performances are subtle and powerful. Jackson employs the power of touch to communicate what evades spoken language. It’s an embodied experience that honors the sumptuousness of life and leaves you feeling the rain on your skin.

“Raise your head,” photographer Bawa asks the reserved Bambino. It sounds easy when it pertains to how he should pose for the camera, but it becomes challenging in the metaphorical sense, as their hidden love affair intensifies in a country where homosexuality is a criminal offense, and queer individuals are at risk of being subjected to violence at any given moment. The Teddy Award at the 2023 Berlinale is a courageous, heartwarming, and mature directorial debut from Nigeria. Despite echoing the reflexive fear of diversity taking root in places where they insist on confining sexuality to black-and-white standards, the film steadfastly upholds the inherently colorful right to love.

Overflowing with tenderness that can break your heart, yet soaked in the truth of experiences that feel lived, visceral, and real, Àma Gloria attempts to explore the material from which the bonds of love are made and finds it complex, intricate, harsh, and ever so fragile. Six-year-old Cleo holds a deep affection for her nanny, Gloria, beyond anything else. When Gloria returns to her homeland, Cleo pays her a visit for one last transformative summer they will share together. It's not certain you can talk about a ‘coming-of-age‘ movie when the heroine is only six years old, but here you experience an almost literal emotional odyssey, full of depth and power, without a single saccharine moment, only dense, compelling truth. Which is made all the greater by the stirring performance of the young lead, Louise Mauroy-Panzani.

Under the hot Greek sun, the animators at an all-inclusive island resort prepare for the busy touristic season. Kalia is the group leader. As summer intensifies and the work pressure builds up, their nights become violent and Kalia’s struggle is revealed in the darkness. But when the spotlights turn on again, the show must go on.

As her pregnancy approaches its end, Itto – who lives with her in-laws while her husband is away on a business trip – finds her peaceful daily life disrupted by a series of unexplained, supernatural phenomena. A gripping social allegory takes on the form of a science fiction thriller in one of the most distinctive directorial debuts of recent years, which became an instant sensation at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award. And whereas director Sofia Alaoui is definitely someone to watch today, she already brings us an incredible image of the future, exploring how an alien visitation in Morocco might relate to women’s emancipation. If you are curious to experience the above, all wrapped up in a captivating directorial style and outstanding sound design, among other elements, then Animalia is right up your alley.

The Statue of Liberty and the Joker, two wandering street artists, end up prisoners in the same cell. When the state’s systemic attrocity breaks Liberty, the Joker will search for her pieces, to put her back together.

This surprising exercise of coming-of-age cinema, and poignant commentary on masculinity as a social construction, starts with the experiment of a man, who sends a boy on a quest into the scary night. The boy manages to conquer his fears but back at home, a painful twist hurts beyond anything he went through the night.

After a failed suicide attempt, Dimitris will seek refuge in his grandfather's old holiday home in the seaside town of Michaniona, close to Thessaloniki.

After investing fortunes and time in their less popular films, two young directors are forced to make a living in commercials or in film criticism, but hope to return to cinema. They visit producers or talk rich friends into investing in their talent. Arpa Colla is the visualization of their shared unrealized visions.

Inspired by the silent exodus from Albania, A Short Trip chronicles a couple’s journey of love, sacrifice, and separation. Drawing from personal experiences and observations, it reflects the reality of a generation trading the best years of their lives for uncertain futures. Through its balanced narrative, the film explores the physical and emotional layers of their relationship, offering a heartfelt account of a generation’s hopes, fears, and resilience.