Discoveries from Greece World Cinema

As an experimental depiction of trying to finish a chore, a young man enters a grassy yard and seeing the giant vegetation, gathers his tools and sets to work. During the preparation and hard work, he faces various obstacles. He struggles to overcome them and bring the effort to completion.

The film tells the story of Lidice village, levelled and–literally–eradicated by the Nazis in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. However, despite the heavy death toll it paid, the Czech village was not only erased from the map but constitutes a symbol in the fight against Fascism.

Only a breath away from the center of Athens, Alimos is famous for its amazing beaches, as well as its contrasting elements. A film about the quality of life at a small city that lives intensely day and night.

Five sights of Athens as seen from another point of view. The various names of Truman, the passing-by runner, Charilaos Trikoupis’ specialty, the animal instincts of love, and Melina, they all share personal data in the time of mask-wearing. Now, people and sights find time to get to know each other.

A Polytechnic student, Thanasis, shortly after the death of his mother, moves into the house of his forty-five-year-old brother Petros, who still lives in the atmosphere of the 60s. A former Polytechnic student, he too had formed a rock band with his friends, a group that they still try to keep alive in their free time. Thanasis sees on the doorstep of the house a woman who looks a lot like Eleni, his brother's former girlfriend. He watches her intently and realizes that it is indeed Eleni. She has come from abroad to attend a regular meeting of the old company, which no one seems to remember anymore.

Corruption and lawlessness infuriate Father George. The dynamic and modern priest decides to take action. Together with other priests, they form a strike force called "Immediate Action Priests." And where words fail, karate prevails.

Unable to change his brother's mind, who's decided to marry off his daughter to a wealthy compatriot, a progressive uncle sets his sights on helping his niece and her beau. Can Uncle Ippokratis save the day and let love shine through?

A recently fired cook poses as a misogynist to get a job in the mansion of an unrepentant woman-hater.

A failed musician in a forgotten neighborhood piano bar, an incompetent lover and insecure since childhood, it seems that no one can save Johnny from his personal impasse. Takis, however, an unstable taxi driver, will appear out of nowhere to change his life forever.

Twelve old high school friends are murdered one by one during a reunion party that takes place on Christmas eve.

The most isolated Greek island is transformed from a sleepy tourist destination to an outpost for Syrian refugees.

Yannis is staying alone at home for a while because his wife is going on a short vacation, and he lives a dull and monotonous life as a bachelor. But his bachelor life is disrupted by his new upstairs neighbor, a beautiful young woman named Katerina. Katerina has recently separated from her husband and is inconsolable. Yannis undertakes to comfort her, in a purely friendly manner at first. However, such friendships with attractive neighbors can be quite dangerous...

Thanasis, a rising movie star is excited about the new movie he is starring in. This movie is called FILM. The excessive ambitions and artistic vision of the director that will lead Thanasis to madness. He himself is determined to discover the secret of filming and ultimately the secret of life. In a film shooting nothing is as it seems.

Artemis finds out that her application for a British university has been accepted. As she prepares to leave, her parents organize a big farewell party at their house. In a crowd full of guests Artemis finds Simos. He proposes to flee the party in order to have a last excursion together. A long journey commences, filled with nature, sea and secluded landscapes. Present, past and future meet for a hike only to decipher the answers for some unresolved questions. What is love? When do we fall in love? What is what makes us fall in love with someone? How do we stop loving someone? Where do all those beautiful sentiments end up to? Who is the culprit when two people must break up, but they don’t want to? A series of questions that will never be addressed and perhaps might never be answered. A starry-eyed story about feelings and their decay throughout time, as well as the heartache we experience when we have to move on and leave behind traces of something that once only mattered.

To meet the Greek government’s impossible criteria, Nick, a photographer at PIrée, is forced to retouch the features of those who are refused entry. Two of these immigrants take us through the streets of Athens, where their place is being built step by step.

Downstairs House is a short documentary that documents the life of an elderly couple over the course of three years. With a single camera, the director visits the house regularly and participates in their daily activities. "But life has rolls" says the protagonist in the second part of the film, and since nothing is a product of direction, everything moves freely and unexpectedly, the documentary reaches a quagmire that is none other than the vulnerability of our human nature.

In 2005, California’s Getty Museum hit the news: their former curator for antiquities, Marion True, has been accused of being involved in an extensive trade in archaeological treasures and went on trial in Rome charged with criminal conspiracy. The True case is not an exception, but rather an example for a major ethical crisis that has hit many big museums around the world, which mirrors the deeper crisis of the antiquity trade today.

Uncle Julius arrives from abroad and Soula runs around in a panic. The reason is that her uncle does not know that his niece is single, so she has to introduce him to a groom to prevent him from finding out the truth. The groom is eventually found completely by chance, and the game begins...

Lambros is a stingy, married industrialist. However, his stinginess will eventually begin to waver when...

The exploits of a psycho-sexual madman and the struggle to stop him.

Gramvousa. A stronghold of conquerors, a pirates’ den or a charging point for freedom fighters? How can a small, barren islet keep so many secrets? Dimitris Gotsopoulos takes us on a fascinating journey of discovery in the backdrop of the Aegean, where nothing is as it seems and roles keep shifting. Just like in any good story.

In Ancient Greece, in the time of Agamemnon, shortly before the Trojan War, events are reversed and the order of things changes. Young Electra while is in an existential quest for truth, she's being trapped in the crack of time.

When the Greek factory of VIO.ME. closes down, a group of workers decides to take radical action. They occupy the factory and attempt to operate it themselves, based on the principles of direct democracy. Their venture inspires activists all around the world, while the ex-owner is astonished to see the family business turn into a symbol for the up-and-coming radical left. For the workers, striving to make ends meet, selfmanagement turns out to be an unprecedented adventure, full of conflicts. They soon realise that in order to succeed, the first thing they have to change is themselves...

Hadetia (which means folk customs in the local dialect) explores the acoustic landscape of bell rituals in Drama, Northern Greece and invites the viewers into a space where the resonant bells dominate the area. Acting as a sensory mediation between sound, place and time, it reveals a connection of cultural continuity and collective memory.

The Cyprus issue is one of the darkest pages of Greek history. After the end of the war in Cyprus in 1974, the post-colonial Greek governments discredited the Greek soldiers and officers who took part in the war, and were hostile towards them. The same behavior happened to the relatives of the missing, who did not stop looking for their loved ones and demanding explanations from the Greek state about the fate of their loved ones. In the end, victims of the war in Cyprus are not only those who died on the battlefield, but also those who managed to return home. For all of them, time stopped on July 20, 1974.

A very hot day of Summer, two groups meet on a beach. Summer images for flirting and nostalgia.

A documentary about Greek village of 150 residents who helped 300,000+ refugees.

The beautiful gypsy Marina, who has never known her father, decides to leave her mother and the gypsy camp and go to live in the city. With Katerina's help, she finds a job in a shop where she meets and falls in love with Petros, heir to the wealthy Alexandros Kanaris. The two lovers plan to marry, but Petros' father, who is naturally opposed to such a marriage, learns of Marina's origins. The great suffering begins when she tells Petros the secret, and he kicks her out of the house because he considers gypsies to be lowly. However, he does not know that Marina is pregnant with his child. Six years later, when Petros returns to Greece after completing his studies in cardiology, little Annoula—his daughter, whom Marina had left at Kanaris' doorstep—will be the reason her parents reunite.

A young couple comes back from a night out. Suddenly they are attacked on the street. Their reaction will mark their lives. A short film about dilemmas, choices and the price to pay for them.

In this shapeshifting essay film by French-Greek filmmaker Daphné Hérétakis, we visit the streets of Athens in July 2015 and the wake of an austerity referendum, finding friends and strangers, pop songs and poetry, fallen monuments and hopes for the future. It is a lyrical sketch of a time of personal and political transition – culminating in an image of liberating, apocalyptic possibility.

Portrait of Greek director Theo Angelopoulos.

Levi is inspired by the contrast between nature and technological reality, between the conscious and structured, and the unconscious. It is both a digital experiment and a broader visual and philosophical inquiry into the nature of form, movement, environment and communication - or its absence - between different modes of existence. The narrative unfolds within a dual world: beneath the surface of the water lies a realm of organic forms generated algorithmically, while above it, a strictly standardized, mechanical reality prevails. A world of abandoned machines, operating incessantly without purpose, in the absence of their creator. These two worlds do not communicate; they are unaware of one another's existence.

A man and a woman meet at a karaoke bar. He stands awkwardly on stage. She rushes in to save him. Just as suddenly as she entered his life, she disappeared. Forever. Now he is left to cope with her loss while carrying on with his work—he runs a funeral home.

Socks go in pairs. They cannot exist on their own, only as a pair! Why? I am in favor of the self-existence of socks!

An explicit anti-rape film.

A feature film based on the true story on the life and death of Athanasios Diakos (1788 – 1821). Hassan and his Ottoman gang terrorize the family of Yorgis Psychoyos… His wife Psychoyina will send their son, Nasos, to the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Artotina… However, the profound love that the handsome Diakos has for his faith and his homeland will lead him down thorny paths… His horrible martyrdom, like a fiery sword plunged into the hearts of Greeks!…

Sometimes coming home is not what you expect it to be.

A debut documentary short by Lena Voudouri.

Young Nikos leaves Athens for Thessaloniki, where he hopes to become a successful singer. However, he leaves behind his beloved Mary and in Thessaloniki he meets another woman, whom he marries. Mary makes an unsuccessful attempt at suicide. Nikos' wife loses her life in a car accident, and life brings the couple back together again.

A typical melodrama with a rich young man, Petros, who, as usual, falls in love with a poor girl, Vana, and naturally thinks of marrying her despite the objections of his family, who, as always, are opposed to such a possibility. And as if all that weren't enough, everything conspires against them and their life becomes unbearable. However, as usual, our two young lovers draw courage from their love and faith in life, and overcome all obstacles. The ending is happy and joyful, like a promising new year...

The documentary presents the little-known story of German and Austrian political prisoners who were forced to serve in a Nazi punishment unit in occupied Greece. Many deserted and joined ELAS, actively resisting fascism.

In the culminating months before the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, four young friends spend a casual evening roaming their native Cairo before an unexpected altercation fatefully transforms one of them into an unlikely revolutionary symbol.

Three different stories with a common element, a police officer.

The heroes are entrenched behind false identities, their communication channels are closed - although neighbors do not exchange even a single hello. Their chance meeting ends up in the creation of some contact details. But the end...

Salesman Gregor Samsa transforms into a reptile from the materials of his merchandise. The affection of his family, who lose their main source of income, turns to hatred and they kill him. They throw him in the trash...

Thanos lives a conventional life with his family in a lakeside village in Epirus. One Carnival night, a mysterious dancer wearing a veil will shake up his everyday life. The carnival woman will take him to the "woman of the other shore," the local fairy. His exploration will take him away from his usual activities, which will provoke a reaction from both his immediate family and his wider circle. His only constant ally is Vavo, his grandmother, who is the border between the two worlds: the real and the supernatural. Thanos will follow his path to the end. His understanding of female nature and his search for the "ideal woman" will prove fatal for him.

A look at “Greek love” and the reality of homosexuality in Greece in 1991. Leaders of the once-called GLBT movement (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender) or simply people who dared to stand in front of the camera and speak about their lives, paint us a clear portrait – a bigger picture that might not have changed much in the last three decades.

In the difficult days of the coronavirus and the quarantine, many difficulties arise for couples. Especially in couples where society treats more strictly, like a couple of women. Antigone is a dynamic and strict woman and a fighting lawyer. On the other hand, Ioli is more sensitive and emotional. She suffers from years of depression and being fired from her job because of her sexual preferences has taken a toll on her and she finds solace in alcohol and technology. Antigone tries to stand by her and help her in her own way. But in the end he resorts to the way of Ioli.... The film was made in the context of the 5th Panorama Film School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with the theme DEACTIVATION.