Discoveries from Greece World Cinema

A rapper tries every possible way to communicate with his dead mother and encounters immortal characters.

In 1991, after more than four decades of oppression and isolation, the totalitarian communist regime in Albania falls, leaving its people exposed to the new world. The refugee crisis spread across Europe in Germany, Italy and Greece. Some succeeded in creating a new life, others not. Shpetim and Fatbardha were together. They decided to walk the distance between Albania and Greece to live their love. 25 years later, their son walks the same distance, this time from Greece to Albania.

The documentary "The Greek Maria Callas", directed by Tassos Psarras, broadcast by ERT1 on Saturday, September 23, 2017, at 13:20, focuses on the Greek period of Callas and the visits to Greece from 1957 until her death .

After suffering a heart attack, a famous actor invites his two daughters to return to Greece and join him in a “Macbeth for three” performance. The rehearsals will reveal all their harsh truths and emotional traumas.

With the German Occupation in Greece (1941-1944) as a background, this film tells the love story between my father, an assistant professor at the mysterious German Scientific Institute of Athens - financed by the occupying power, Germany, but in reality a refuge for resistant students - and Nelly, a young student in Fine Arts. The film also traces the portrait of their friend Rudolf Fahrner, founder of the Institute, comrade of the Stauffenberg Brothers and one of the few conspirators of the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, on 20 July 1944, that survived the repression that followed.

In the near future, rapid evolution of technology has led humanity in the creation of holograms identical to dead people.

An 80-hour film being printed and shown in cycles every four years at a remote location in Greece.

In today’s Ethiopia of 85 million citizens, each year thousands of children end up in orphanages, handed over by parents who are unable to raise them or found abandoned even a few days after they are born. The film records daily life behind the walls of one of these institutions, in which a hard-working staff of nannies, nurses and volunteers take care of about fifty children aged from a few months to twelve years. Filmed in cinema-verite style and based on observation, it explores the complex fabric of the diverse, transient community that lives isolated in this home away from home.

Michael wanders in Milan, his student town, and in a decrepit apartment buildings block knows Peter and his girlfriend Christina. We will share with them for a few days to leave their lives with unnecessary sleepless nights, walks and whiskey.

Two students who work at the horse racing, try to understand each other.

Karagiozis and Hatziavatis find work in a family guesthouse.

Ilias arrives on a remote island to claim his late father’s inheritance. But the longer he is forced to stay on the island, the more his initial indifference begins to fade. As he interacts with the local community, he uncovers his father’s past and, with it, a portrait of a man which differs significantly from his own memories. His gradually awakening emotions are intensified by his encounter with the local girl Kalliopi, by sudden spasms in his body, and by mysterious power outages that affect the entire island.

Manos is a troubled guy who didn't keep the promise he gave to the Lord. Now he needs to find a way to make up for it before it's too late

Lemonia is the owner of the most popular bakery in town, but the genius behind her most sought-after goods is not her, but her new employee, Margarita. Margarita's repertoire includes many types of desserts, the most renowned being her hyper realistic cakes made to look nothing like sweets. They imitate cuts of meat, but imitation can only go so far...

Waclaw Nijinski, exiled from the Russian Ballets, exiled from marriage and his home, exiled within a psychiatric hospital, finds himself in a process of transformation — he is becoming a sheep, with the purpose of settling forever in the Alps. Will he succeed?

A man throws a letter in a bottle back into the sea.

A girl is trapped in a dream searching for her mother.

Seeking escape from the walls that keep her trapped, Aliki turns to the hidden and dangerous world of music. A story taken from the half-forgotten remains of a film that was never released.

52 Pick Up is a comedy thriller about two young men, who form their relationship inside an apartment building, searching behind every door to uncover the truth. The first young man is a quirky P.I., whose job is synonymous with his life. After his terrible disappointment from a failed case, he persistently searches for the reason for his failure. Once he finds it, he decides to follow him to the apartment building of the other young man, Mitsos. Mitsos is an idle car mechanic, working in his father's business. His carefree life is turned upside down when a daily puzzle outside his own door seems to be trying to shake him up strongly. Through an allegory, audio documents, a pineapple juice, a near encounter with radishes, a key and a harlequin, Mitsos is called upon to keep his cool and untangle the tangle - always for his own good.

After the death of a goldfish, two young people decide to bury it and set out on a walk through the countryside.

A 100-year-old woman travels back in time. Guided by some old photographs of hers, she searches for her 22-year-old self, who at the same time, is wandering with a camera through the city she just moved to.

A penniless writer comes to stay at his brother's seaside canteen to spend the summer. There, observing the erratic love behaviors of the patrons, he decides to write a novel, which will be based on all the incredible things he sees unfolding before him every day. As the novel progresses, the imaginary events begin to become more and more confused with the real ones. Through the ephemeral and frivolous relationships, a great romantic love is unexpectedly born that seems to come from another era. But has anything like this happened in reality?

The remarkable story of Yorgos Katsaros, virtuoso of Greek folk guitar and rebetiko, is the story of Greek folk musicians in America from the early 20th century to today. It is the story of rebetiko. It is the story of Greek migrants and their diaspora.

Photographer Renée Revah retraces the route from Thessaloniki, where her ancestors were deported, to Auschwitz and Birkenau, confronting her genealogical trauma and mentally conversing with her grandfather while seeking to heal.

The PYRKAL ammunition factory once supplied wars all over the world. Today, it lies abandoned. As a high-risk decontamination effort uncovers explosives still buried beneath its soil, four former workers guide us through its ruins and their memories – their pride in their craft, their sorrow for its tragedies, and the contradictions of making a living producing death.

As Yorgos Papalios trains for the Athens Marathon, his remarkable life unfolds – from shipping dynasties and revolutionary Cuba to the shaping of Greek cinema and cultural policy – revealing a personal journey that echoes the modern history of Greece.

A documentary about the Egyptian Mummy Research Program from the National Archaeological Museum. CT scans transform each exhibit into a narrator that brings to light rituals, fears, hopes, and stories that transcend time.

In the heart of Kenya, an Irish pastor with no coaching experience teaches his athletes something more important than running: how to change their lives. At 2,500 meters on Kenya’s legendary Tenth Hill, brother Colm O’Connell turns the unknown Iten into a cradle of Olympians, shaping not only champions, but visionaries.

Kostis believed solidarity is action in the present as well as a guideline for society in the future, so he proposed new forms of collective action, giving renewed momentum and identity to the solidarity movement. His work, his activism, and the exemplary life he led left a deep imprint. Has social solidarity changed since? What form does it take today?

The documentary follows the life and work of the artist Giorgos Tziokas, who became known for his illustrations of great works by famous Greek artists – such as Manos Hadjidakis and his famous record Gioconda’s Smile, and Odysseas Elytis, whose famous collection Axion Esti granded him the Nobel Prize.

Eva, a middle-aged painter and eccentric performer, teeters between madness and human comedy, love and the fear of death. Besides, she suffers from “Albertine Syndrome,” forever falling in love with the heroine of her own work. This passion pushes her to the brink of madness. In daily life, she struggles with caring for her schizophrenic mother and facing a serious illness. Can art become her salvation?

On the banks of Lake Trichonida, irrigation water leaks illegally into the parched soil. In a land where European subsidies bought the end of cultivation, manual labor remains the sole act of resistance; tobacco, once a national product, has become the last thread of a community that refuses to be wiped off the map. In drained fields; a handful of tobacco farmers persist in the dream they were raised on.

Far away is where you don’t want to go, ERT3 captures the offering of the Aegean Team to the border islands. There, where the sea connects and volunteering becomes a journey of life. 450 nautical miles, 5,525 medical examinations, 18 specialties, 132 volunteers. There, at the edges, where the scream of the islands meets the whisper of humanity. There, between need and the human being… a road to the sea!

Alexandros, head of the cultural department of a well-known cultural center, spends his last day alone recalling great artistic moments, with lost friends and very important people of art with whom he lived there for the last 25 years, which he tells us based on archival material.

A diverse group of people share one unexpected bond: type 1 diabetes. Through their stories, this documentary traces a community effort that began in Athens ten years earlier to bring visibility to a condition often overlooked.

Traces of narrative that shape time, following the rhythm of war, every war. They emerge from the sea and run shouting on the shore. My heart, do you not have such wisdom as to despair? My love, my love, my love, why did you leave me alone?

Danae works at a bar, but dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. She is one of the many young women in Athens struggling to make ends meet. She decides to become an egg donor. Why not? Sounds like it comes at no cost. But the procedure is not that simple.

Found footage of Greece’s entry to the 1991 Fetish Eurovision, previously thought to be lost in the Great Fire of 1992.

Was it the cat that devoured the bird, or the bird that swallowed the cat? Cats, fish, birds—from Chalandri to Piraeus.

A girl in her twenties strolls through Athens, drifting between cigarettes, cafés and bars as her unspoken thoughts unfold alongside the city.

From Homer to Vamvakaris, the first and definitive History of Rebetiko Song, by Kostas Ferris, as it has never been presented before. Eight hours of enthralling revelation of the secrets of the most important cultural creation of the Greek state, featuring dozens of songs—both original recordings and reinterpretations—and speakers including the most distinguished scholars of Rebetiko and its surrounding themes.

The cinematic portrayal of a custom of expatriation in the islands of the northern Aegean. Mothers who patiently waited years for their return would send their children off with a blessing on their lips and a prayer. This bygone era, looking back to the past, delving into our folklore, was reverently captured by the camera lens to give us a few moments from the past, like a memorial to a time lost in time.

short film by Vera Chotzoglou and Xristina Dimakogianni

Two soldiers, caught in an unknown war, find refuge in a ruined cinema and are forced to confront their personal ghosts.

This film is a search in the shadows of our empty home and at the same time an immersion in the past through the New Year's Eve of my childhood. Memories, ghosts and dreams come back to life as I try to reassemble the fragments of my life.

An Italian count travels to Greece and discovers a magical cave with water that enhances sexual vitality. The count engages in a flurry of activity, pleasing his wife, mistress, and a young hotel maid.

The frog is searching her place in a big world

A crow drops pebbles into a pitcher, coaxing water to rise — an ancient fable that still shimmers with truth. This film follows the mystery and brilliance of corvids, a family of bold songbirds whose intelligence reveals the wonder hidden in the everyday.

Winter, 2025. Belgium—unknown. Video-notes from a seven-day bicycle tour. Only wind, rain, pedaling, and abandoned places, where the filmmaker spends his time or sleeps.

A magical journey, an escape from reality. The film follows a man and his animal friends on an adventure in a colorful dream world.

In the aftermath of her brother's death and with the support of two close friends, Ellie seeks temporary escape in an isolated place, devoid of life and memories. Her grief follows her there in the form of a mysterious object.