Greek selections at the 17th Thessaloniki doc fest
Fifteen years since his landmark film “Agelastos Petra” (The Mourning Rock), an emotional 10-year exploration of the impact of industrial activity on the people, environment and antiquities in the working-class coastal town of Elefsina, west of Athens, Greek auteur Filippos Koutsaftis returns with another lyrical film, this time turning his lens on the the myth-filled, bucolic province of Arcadia.
“Hail Arcadia” will be screened at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF) as part of the Greek program, which this year features 63 feature and short films. Seventeen of these productions have been included in the different sections of the International Program while 46 are part of the Greek Panorama.
Other movies by Greek directors include “Escape from Amorgos” by festival regular – and now SYRIZA MEP – Stelios Kouloglou, which tells the story of a plot to rescue left-wing politician Giorgos Mylonas from his political exile on the Aegean island of Amorgos at the time of Greece’s military dictatorship in the late 1960s. The documentary is based on Elias Kulukundis’s book “The Amorgos conspiracy.”
Kimon Tsakiris, whose darkly humorous “Sugartown” was a smash hit in 2006, arrives in Thessaloniki this year with “The Archaeologist,” telling the story of a determined female scientist who tries to salvage as much as possible from an archaeological dig that is destined to go under the water due to the construction of a new dam project by the Public Power Corporation (PPC) in western Macedonia.
Not all the Greek-produced films take place within the country’s borders. “The New Plastic Road,” by director Angelos Tsaousis and photographer Myrto Papadopoulos, documents physical and social transformation in a remote area in Tajikistan brought about by the construction of a new road connecting this poorest republic of the former Soviet Union with China.
Outside of the films in competition, TDF organizers have so far announced a tribute to Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper and Romanian director Alexandru Solomon, as well as a special section on contemporary German productions. A press conference will be held on Tuesday.
Info: tdf.filmfestival.gr
