Discoveries from Greece World Cinema

A short fim by Danae Io

In April 1944, German troops and collaborators massacred over 300 civilians in the Greek village of Pyrgoi, burning it to the ground. This documentary gives voice to survivors and descendants, reflecting on trauma, silence, and the enduring shadow of history.

Blending verbatim performance and choral music, Mother Company follows a children’s choir amidst an abandoned power plant in Northern Greece, role-playing as generations of workers of this de-industrialised area. A chorus of young voices reflects on environmental catastrophe, public health and economic depravation while a ‘Green Future’ is promised to save them.

An exercise in style, inspired by the cinema of David Lynch, and specifically by Eraserhead and Blue Velvet.

Petros, a five-year-old boy, spends the autumn season in a pediatric oncology clinic, bringing Christmas a bit earlier for the sake of his sister who, due to her illness, may not make catch it.

The calm waters of the Loudias River are disturbed by an unexpected visitor. Little Minas, enchanted by local legend, obsessively searches for the mysterious creature that spreads fear and terror in the small tavern.

Is there a foolproof flirting line? An unbeatable racket? Can someone be a winner in a world full of losers?

A film released in 2016.

A fatalistic poet meets a young and quirky painter who makes the unwise decision to fall in love with him. She lets the connection between them grow, even if it might be just a trap.

Outside a church of Agios Ioannis, in southern Messenia, Greece. Filmed on an iPhone 13 with sound recorded (separately) on the same phone, using a Shure MV88 mic. March 2023.

Chόres celebrate spring and glorify life through sweet songs and bitter farewells. When nature is reborn, a mythical aura reminds us that hope will bloom even in the darkest regions.

Freeman’s Homes begins in 2017, as Freddy takes up residence in the Fig House—an abandoned building in Thessaloniki, Greece. Over the next five years, he embarks on a long journey in search of a place he can truly call home.

Nikos visits his best friend Haris after a long time with the intention of asking him to go for a bike ride in the park where they grew up. However, as they meet, Haris' cold attitude towards Nikos is immediately apparent. When they arrive at the park, after a short conversation, Haris breaks down and confesses his complaints and fears regarding their friendship.

Four colleagues are sitting around a table with a bottle of wine. Their conversation turns from the influence of alcohol to an issue concerning the absence of the fifth member of the group, turning the evening into a fantasy environment of guilt. The clues that surround them lead the group to uncover the culprit and unlock the real problem.

A non-biographical documentary that approaches the poetic work of Dinos Christianopoulosrecording the impact of his poetry on young generation through the subjective view of a director. A creator and poet, a special scholar is approached by painters, musicians, publishers in Thessaloniki.

Stories from the historic Palas cinema in Pagrati and its owner.

There is a shipwreck. Where are her parents? We hear the story of a refugee who is waiting to meet her parents. A short film based on a real interview.

In beautiful Messinia, two horse therapy idealists try to save their farm from the appetites of the controversial mega-horse park's controversial subject, Lepouris. When naive business ideas get them into trouble, the Lepurs attack. Will a revolutionary website be able to tip the balance?

On a hot summer day, three US archaeologists are studying the de-industrialised plains of Thebes, the city of Antigone and Oedipus. The camera moves between ancient ruins and infrastructure as a field worker leaves the crops after a day’s labour.

A dancing journey through a girl’s relationship with her eating disoder.

On her way to audition for Nina's role, a young actress relives a fear from a past experience which she is called to deal with and overcome in order to go on stage.

14-year-old Anti jumps out of a moving vehicle. She runs, she is hunted, she fights back: all of which she records on the stolen mobile phone of her trafficker. This recording might be her only evidence.

The empty streets of Athens on a Monday evening. A girl returns home from work. A pair of stuffed animals left on a dumpster. An omen? Out of nowhere, a casual encounter with a homeless girl leads to an unusual invitation. A goldfish shows the way to freedom. Who is the savior and who wants to be saved?

Dimitra, a nearly 50-year-old woman living with her manipulative elderly mother, Rea, reaches a breaking point when she attempts to install a treadmill in her bedroom.

In order to contain over-fishing the EU offered high rewards for the demolition of traditional fishing boats. Broken Boats captures this hidden moment of history through the eyes of the people involved.

"The Quality of Image" is an participatory art project that draws inspiration from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to explore and analyze the markers of modern society's quality of life. Focused on both the quantity and quality of individual needs and their fulfillment, the project aims to delve into the subjective and objective aspects of life indicators and standards of living. Through a process of deconstruction and dismantling, indicators will reconstruct the image of quality of life in Athens. Every individual will create operational images, in order to transform a data (percentage) into image, the data which was created by the European Commision on the Quality of Life report in 2023.

A backstage look at the people and artists of the pioneering dance network Aerowaves, and their influence on contemporary dance across Europe since 1996.

During the pandemic and the Greek lock down, the locked down relationship of a married couple with kids reaches a pivotal point at the sight of a younger and in love couple who lives in the opposite apartment.

Kokovios is a kind-hearted and somewhat naive man who, while trying to help those around him, constantly finds himself in trouble.

A man is late for work and his work place punishes him.

A man trapped in an endlessly repeating space resembling a subterranean parking lot with multiple levels, is searching frantically for the exit.

A female figure obsessively sews a garment until the boundaries between her and her art disappear.

Charlie, returns to the Greek island, in which years ago, he had the most traumatic experience of his life. His son drowned in the sea. Ηis personal trauma mixes with the collective trauma of the refugee crisis.

Construction workers’ hard struggles and grandiose strikes lead to important achievements for the workers, like social security, continuous working hours, benefits and allowances, and banning police presence from their assemblies. Meanwhile, the construction workers movement got heavily politicized by posing concrete political demands.

George works as a computer science teacher at an Athenian night school and tries to cope with the flood of problems caused by the pandemic. The heavy policing and the demands coming from the state and from his mother are constantly increasing. Will George be able to protecy his mental and emotional balance? Maybe marriage is the solution.

He is sleeping. He is not dead.

The relationship between a mother and two daughters, at the duration of Easter vacations, in a village at Creta. A critical approach to the sex, religion and traditions of Crete, the boundaries of family bonds, through the search for the perfect prospective groom.

On a Greek island named Symi, people believe in miracles. The film starts from there, in 2018, to explore the relationship of man with faith and knowledge, physic and metaphysic.

In Climate Diary (2020), a fixed-camera chronicle captures the subtleties of climate shifts, paralleling the lock down experience. The film challenges viewer norms by favoring evocative soundscapes over constant action. This deliberate departure immerses audiences in a contemplative space, where the synergy of image and sound propels the narrative. As the documentary unfolds, the fusion of voice and music at the conclusion provides an abstract resonance that lingers, inviting viewers to explore time's intricate dance and discover beauty in the tranquility

A special person, Nikolas, after an argument with his neighbor Christos, arrives at his home and starts talking with his parents.

On the warmest day of the year, two boys meet. A few hours later, a pigeon gets trapped with them. During this heatwave, all creatures dream of escaping from the city that is burning.

“But let’s go back about two thousand years, to Nazareth in 0001 AD, and let’s watch, perhaps, the most important case of naming in human history. When Christ was born, some say on December 25, he was not called Christ, he was simply called “baby”. Joseph and Mary had not decided, or rather, had not agreed on what name to give the little one… Jesus was a possibility, but Joseph considered it quite a flowery one. Of course… He didn’t even think about it… The child was a stranger… We all know whose… Huh?”

Deserted landscapes, ancient ruins and abandoned shipwrecks at sea. Elefsina’s archeological sites don’t come close to being as hauntingly beautiful as these dead ships. They stand majestically like memorial sculptures and bring a magnetism to the eye. In fact, these are the neglected refugees of Elefsina. For how did they end up there, anyway? What's their story? That's the story I want to know. Elefsina Notre Amour is a short sci-fi essay, a timeless archive, filmed on 16mm color Kodak.

Through the microcosm of an old coffee shop in Metaxourgeio, in the late 1980s, we witness a neighborhood that is changing radically. The camera records the slow rhythms that govern life in the coffee shop, the rituals of the patrons, the petty conflicts between regulars and non-regulars that can lead from fistfights to hugs, the confessions after drinking, the great friendships, in other words, everything we don't see and don't do in today's "coffee shops".

Using the archives of different sources, the film tries an alternative reading of Makronisos, an island used as a concentration camp for supporters of the left after the Greek civil war.

Were nineteenth century operas to their age what Hollywood superproductions are to ours?' Andreas Velissaropoulos asks.... He describes his film as ‘a surrealist “poorman's superproduction,” full of cultural and historical allusions, contrasting with short glimpses of contemporary reality concerning life and mentalities of young inhabitants of modern Athens.' The sound track uses the music of Beethoven, Bach, Berg, Schoenberg, Richard Strauss and Wagner. Balinese monkey chants, pop culture, symbols of fates, seasons and the elements are interwoven.

An adaptation of the Mikhail Bulgakov novel The Master and Margarita. Power, religion, art, ideologies and love face off against metaphysical forces. Good and evil in eternal confrontation. A surreal wandering from the real to the dreamlike.

A woman, Danae, is in a dead end and is looking for an escape.

A space-time journey through the memory fragments of a wandering man in the four seasons of a love story

A film inspired by the paintings of Rene Magritte, Marchel Duchamp and Salvador Dali.

Year 2021. Social exclusion hides in alleys, pests in apartments, wears protective masks and stigmatizes at will. Audio seems to no longer be streaming. Two girls face brutality with all they have left. Forgotten and neglected by society, people ostracized from another era, they violently roam around themselves in all kinds of cages. The echo of the wail echoes their mark. The film was made in the context of the 5th Panorama Film School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with the theme DEACTIVATION.

Elias, a young man, spends a lot of time in front of the TV screen. In another part of the House, his partner Katerina sits in front of the computer screen for hours. Both absorbed in what they are doing have lost communication with each other and are not interested in what is happening around them. However, a sound heard from the other room momentarily takes Katerina out of her microcosm and forces her to communicate with Ilias. they finally manage to come to an agreement. The film was made in the context of the 5th Panorama Film School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with the theme DEACTIVATION.