Directing
Greece. A small, impoverished city-state dominated by a massive refinery—its only source of income: oil. The men, all armed, hold absolute power. Their leader, Nikos, is gravely ill and must arrange his succession. Shock spreads when he includes his protégé, Maria, among the contenders. The fate of this young woman—unaware of the most tragic part of her family’s past—will be turned upside down by the arrival of Eleni, a singer at the town’s bar.
A rapper writes his new song, talking about his night out in the center of Athens. He sits in the kitchen of his apartment, where we see a mosaic floor and some colorful tiles on the wall. At night, a car wash transforms into a kickboxing studio, where the employees practice in pairs – yet all alone. The floor is mosaic and there are colorful tiles on the wall.
A dystopian workplace at the Perama shipyard. A ban on physical contact has turned human interaction into otherworldly simulations. The suppression of touch has alienated the workers communication transforming the boatyard into a charged landscape of alienation and repressed sensuality beyond stereotypical heteronormative desires. According to local legend, the Persian King Xerxes watched the overwhelming defeat of his fleet from his throne on the rocky peaks of Mount Egaleo, in today’s Perama.
This short film draws its title from a quote by Teos Romvos. It concerns his life and that of Chara Pelekanou in Syros, while delving into their archives and recollections from their time living in Athens and abroad, as well as their subversive writing, publishing, and various other works. The film unfolds in the couple's home, though it also accompanies them to places on the island connected with their longstanding ecological activism, and visits the abandoned home of poet Nikolaos Kalas in Chrousa.
Two siblings live in the industrial town of Elefsina. A bridge connects their neighborhood, inhabited mostly by Black-Sea Greeks, to an area inhabited by immigrants varied background. Social divisions give rise to hostility, reflected in the local sports scene and two siblings’ relationship.
