Discoveries from Greece World Cinema

After three days of torturous insomnia, Miriam and Bilia finally manage to fall asleep in a peaceful pasture.

The film follows three characters-people of the open-air markets-within their working environment. An observational portrait capturing their personalities, their surroundings, and the ways in which they interact with them.

Side Stories is a short animated film that traces the journeys of everyday people in the city of Athens through a series of snapshots, associative transitions, transformations, encounters, and parallel lives, creating a collective portrait of the city. The narrative explores human movement through stillness, using stop-motion animation to transform sketches and drawings into countless frames. Between private and public spaces, multiple narratives emerge. As a symbolic counterpoint to this urban reality, a Caryatid—once admired for supporting a roof that no longer exists—abandons her elevated, conspicuous role and merges with the anonymous crowd.

A short film about small and everyday movements that natures makes. From birds and fishes that create those beautiful movements to little splashes and ants walking by. These kind of movements, the everyday little movements, moves our world and make it beautiful.

A short documentary that follows Christina during Christmas. She is an art activist based in Glasgow who through street performances conveys her stance against consumerism.

short film by Stelios Oikonomidis

Doreida, a daughter of immigrants, visual artist, and cleaner by profession, turns the lens on herself and those who share her reality. Through intimate encounters with cleaners in Greece, including her mother, she weaves their untold stories into a collective narrative about art, dignity, and the fight for rights. Blurring the lines between work and creation, the film is a testament to unseen labor and the resilience of those who carry it.

Maria loves the Earth. She also loves Xenofon, her astrophysics colleague. When their romance turns sour, and in the midst of Earth’s environmental collapse, Maria discovers an extraterrestrial signal giving a solution for the rescue of the blue planet and mankind.

Kai o Simitis thelei to Germano tou!

DREAM(AR)ES is an experimental video where 35mm images from my personal archive are morphed, bringing them back to life through movement. These images capture encounters, places, and landscapes that, in this short video, are re-activated and reimagined, creating a dream(e)scape where dreams and nightmares blend with echoes of lived reality. The past is revisited, seeking another dimension and way to be experienced.

The square was beautiful. The beggar weird. The tourist wanted only a photo. The entrance was free. Later, nothing was the same.

An ethnologic documentary on the Greek-speaking minorities who live in the areas of South Italy, Grecia Salentina (Salentinian Greece) and Grecia Calabra (Calabrian Greece).

Following Mrs. Athina, a local farmer, on her journey from the fields of Ladas to the bustling open market of Kalamata, revealing the journey of vegetables from the village farms to the cities.

The story follows the internal monologue of an elderly, wooden creature as he writes a letter to his childhood friend, Icarus. Through his thoughts and memories, the past unfolds, revealing the events that led to Icarus’s violent departure from the city.

a short film by Susana Kalemou

short film by Sylvia Robin Gionti

A place always shapes the life that develops upon it. This is also true for Kalarrytes, in Epirus. A glimpse into the lives of the few remaining residents who still inhabit the village, preserving centuries-old traditions and professions.

During the German occupation in Athens a young mother gives her own child for adoption. Almost 20 years later their paths meet again.

A small resistance group fighting against the German occupation force in Greece during World War II.

A social film about life in Greece during World War II.

True love is not the kind that suffocates us... but the kind that sets us free.

Costas Manoussakis traced a short but impressive trajectory in Greek cinema and, after making only three films, withdrew into isolation. It was never made clear whether this was a decision to which he had been led due to events or whether this was a peculiar form of self-exiled chosen by a true aesthete. What is certain is that during the sixties, his films, Betrayal and especially Fear, caused quite a stir. Part of the official selection at both the Cannes and Berlin film festivals, the films were box office hits in Greece and were screened in many countries all over the world. At the same time the critics unanimously proclaimed Manoussakis a great talent and a film stylist whose potential went far beyond the narrow limits of Greek cinema. But after 1966, when Fear was screened, Manoussakis never made a film again. At the age of 33 he was a retiree. The documentary looks at the case of Costas Manoussakis in its entirety.

A disillusioned youth trapped in digital isolation converses with what appears to be a distant friend about life-changing opportunities, only to reveal the haunting truth that their companion may be neither human nor real; some prisons are truly of our own making.

A short, dialogue-free documentary, exploring the relationship of urban and natural environment in Attica, Greece. The position of nature within the city: a delimited space, decor, obstacle, oasis. The massacre of trees as hubris, the digital environment as a temporary refuge, flooding and destruction as nemesis. The return and continuity of nature, with or without humans.

A diary film with personal moments of 2024 by Giorgos Efthimiou

Poems by Arthur Rimbaud and Pantelis Kalogerakis, as well as notes and recordings of the factory workers, will be read by: Simon Ridler, Manos Petrakis, Christos Kragiopoulos, Tonia Tzirita Zacharatou, Pantelis Kalogerakis.

The story of the famous charcoal makers from Ikaria, who traveled all over Greece and Asia Minor to make charcoal. Old coal workers describe to us the era and its difficulties. At the same time, the women narrate the events from their own point of view. Descendants in Chalkida and Alonissos, they convey to us the memories of their generation and the relocation of their ancestors. We talk to the historian Themistocles Katsaros and give the real feeling of the fireplaces with excerpts from the film "The Charcoal Burners" by Alinda Dimitriou. Testimonies from another era, against the background of the history of the whole of Greece over the years.

Against the backdrop of local Easter traditions, the passage of seasons, and tourists enjoying their summer vacations on the island of Corfu, the film tells a story of memory, the fear of loss, and the enchantment of the small rituals of everyday life through which human relationships and their stories are built.

A fifty-year-old filmmaker shoots his last film, hoping that, by reconstructing and filming his memories, he will finally remember all the details of a traumatic separation.

the island I come from has many villages, each village has at least one church. It could not have the corresponding priests. So every Easter the resurrection is done by one priest for several villages, which means that some villages have resurrection at 9 at 10 at 11 but at one at two etc. So on Easter 2017 the priest who does the mass in village X decided to go at noon at 12 to do the mass and resurrection which he didn't know about and so very few faithful attended the divine sacrament. ( Rumour has it that Pappas was not on good terms with the villagers and this was a way to avoid them) In a few hours this was learned and the faithful were furious. One of them (perhaps not the most loyal) had an idea, rumours also say he had accomplices but this was never confirmed in any official report. So he went out on the street and started calling people to go to church at 11pm. So slowly the people gathered, the rest of the story

A small, bewildered finch saves the life of the injured leader of the wild pigeons and manages to earn his respect.

Onassis Education presents an animated mini-biopic featuring the novel-like life and extraordinary work of the Greek sculptor Yanoulis Halepas. Born on the island of Tinos in the mid-19th century, he met with massive acclaim at a young age, spent years in a psychiatric hospital, and was artistically reborn in the twilight of his life, a little before the outbreak of the Second World War. Thanks to their long history of marble cutting and carving, the Halepas family have left an indelible mark on the island, which is also home to a School of Fine Arts.

The short 3d animation film "FROM A DOG'S POINT OF VIEW" , is a silent sad-emotional film as it tells us the story of a dog and a child who grow up together.We see the dog from a young age looking out the window wanting to show us what a beautiful day it is to go out and play with his best friend the child, who follows him.But as the years go by, the child grows up and has other problems and concerns in his daily life that distance him from his dog.But as a man grows, so does a dog, and we all know that the dog will not be there forever.

Through documents and narratives, discover the major and minor events that compose the unique history of the city of Missolognhi and get to know the stories of some of the most important locals. This is the third episode of the animated documentary TV series Hellenic Places. Production: Platforma - Urban Culture Co., COSMOTE TV

"Gardenia" is a heartwarming two-dimensional short film set on the enchanting island of Kefalonia in the beginning of the 60’s. The story revolves around a young couple, Giota and Kostas, who embark on a sweet and innocent love affair filled with white flowers, chocolates, and tender kisses. The film beautifully portrayes the essence of Giota’s childhood, the simplicity of riding her red bicycle through the village roads, and the joy of discovering life's small pleasures.

Choosing ignorance is an animated film based on Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", in his work "Politeia" and concerns "the effects of education and the lack of it on human nature". The story takes place in a small village full of lambs, whose only care in the world is playing around, having only one real goal: being accepted in a most popular clup in their village. The only ones that can go through the club’s Security are the ones that possess a special coin, which given to a few chosen ones every day through an ATM. The protagonist, Lana, failed to get the needed coin and couldn’t follow her best friend, Sia, to the club that day. Against all odds, she eventually found it in the most unusual of places. But in the same time she accidentally unearthed the secret hidden behind her village’s weird ways.

The story of a man, lost in the afterlife, who meets a stranger that came as a disturbance of his routine.

METECHO is an architectural narrative about the revival of an abandoned building and the spirit of this place, through references to the history of this place and interpretations of the communal monastic ritual, whose dynamic evolution eventually prevents anything alive from becoming static. The characters create an architecture that promotes the commune in itself, promotes people to participate in its creation, to participate in its evolution and to participate in its functioning, thus participating in their association with each other. The animation presented, describes a day in the revitalized commune, and how it continues to evolve spatially and chronologically.

A contemporary collective portrait of two lakes in Crete (Kourna and Agia) that includes all living and nonliving things, real and imagined: animals, plants, fairies, tourists, even plastic bicycles.

"Everything changes and nothing stays the same as it was in the beginning." The film explores the daily life of an elderly woman diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Stelianna, a young girl with non-speaking autism, takes part in a theatrical performance by people with disabilities, putting together a show about her life.

In the distant future, the last humanoid robot on the planet needs to recharge its battery. However, in this world, recharging, and thus survival, can only be done with the help of a “womb”, which contains some other unborn robot, placing the protagonist in an agonising, moral dilemma.

In a society steadfastly in tune with the passing of time, trying to step up and leave behind the marks of the tragic past, the marginalisation experienced by the unseen side in Nicosia within-the-walls is a howling reminder of the consequences of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, 50 years on.

Aris is a low-ranked Mob associate who has sought refuge to a seedy hostel. The boss, known as the “Gardener” for leaving a golden watering can at the scene of his crimes, is after him for betrayal. One morning, Aris finds the golden watering can by his door.

A film about the migratory past of the director's family and the unparalleled beauty of the island from which they originate. Through the endless repetition of history and set against the backdrop of the island of Ikaria, childhood memories of exile are connected to the current refugee crisis, highlighting the uncertainty of the future.