Greek cinema returns to Berlin

The appointment is fixed: March 20 to 24 the Greek Film Festival returns to Berlin. Renewed, always with a critical eye and more mature than ever.

It is now a favorite and well-known date in the German capital every year, not only for the Greek-speaking audience but also for cinephiles from every corner of the planet, together with the arrival of spring, in the old Berlin cinema Babylon. A festival that has already built a loyal following his audience since 2016 which first started, in a different form at the time, in the demanding homeland of the Berlinale. “This year we will have the most guests ever. In the thirty slots of the event we will have 22 discussions with questions and answers (Q&A) and really many directors, 17 will be present. We are very proud that we managed to bring them” says the active director of the festival, Sofia Stavrianidou, in an interview with DW, shortly before the start of the festival.

Classic fiction films, documentaries, short films, the permanent section with LGBTQI+ content, a section on our relationship with time, coming of age, growing up, films for teenagers and young audiences and a special dedication to Greek horror films make up a rich program with the motto “We choose the bloody BIG screen”. A motto with a double reading: on the one hand, an exhortation to return to the big screen, which in recent years, especially due to the pandemic, has “bloodied” and on the other, a call to see unexpected Hellenistic horror films.

Introducing Papadiamantis to the German public

But the opening of the festival with the Greek film of the year, “Fonissa”, based on the iconic novel of the same name by Alexandros Papadiamantis, directed by Eva Nathena, who will be present at the international premiere of the film in Berlin, is also expected to be dynamic. A difficult film that rapidly captures on the big screen the complex world of Papadiamantis, full of symbolism and deep meanings.

“For me it is a very feminist film and we here in Berlin are a group of women behind the Festival. Also, the title alone, Slayer, fits our theme this year. And of course it is a very successful film this year” reports Sofia Stavrianidou, adding, however, regarding the essence of the film: “But beyond that, it is a classic novel that will also put the Germans a little bit into the modern Greek literature, in a work with a protagonist woman who was ahead of her time. A poor woman from a village, an island in the periphery of Greece, a woman with a deep emotional intelligence, because of which she went to heinous acts against her own sex,” observes Sofia Stavrianidou.

“Cult” Greek horror films in Berlin

A special mention deserves the mini tribute to Greek horror films, a difficult genre, with fanatical fans but also many “haters” and of course few, but extremely persistent exponents of it in Greece. “We will play ‘To Kako’, which is an almost ‘cult’ film by Giorgos Nousias from 2005, which will also be present in Berlin, and ‘Minore’, a new film by Konstantinos Koutsoliotas. A very nice film, a very strange combination, with a twist… but also monsters” characteristically says Sofia Stavrianidou, emphasizing that it is a “specialized genre that is rare”.

At the same time, these films, classic or newer, also have many “funny elements”, which are somehow also a key element of their existence, whether it is “Bad” and the zombie descent in Athens or “Minore”, where the traditional element entangles with metaphysical invaders.

Powerful documentaries, masterclasses, awards

Every year, of course, we owe a special mention to the selected Greek documentaries shown in Berlin, attracting the attention of the German public as well. Through them emerge aspects of an unknown Greek reality, or at least that reality that lies beyond and behind the clichés about “Greek identity”.

“AKOE/AMFI: The History of a Revolution” by Iosif Vardakis about the chronicle of the first homosexual movement in Greece, “Lesbia” by Tzelis Hatzidimitriou, “Mary, Marianna, Maria: The unknown Greek years of Calla” by Vassilis Loura and Michalis Asthenidis , “Afrin in the time of the flood” by Angelos Ralli about the odyssey of an 11-year-old girl who loses her parents in the floods between India and Bangladesh – these are some of the six documentaries that will be shown this year, as Sofia Stavrianidou tells us, with everyone the creators in Berlin.

Among other things, a masterclass is organized on the concept of “Liquid Staging”, the “fluid scenography”, by the award-winning initiator of Asteris Koutoulas. A proposal for the spectacle and its presentation, which combines elements from different arts and media such as cinema, theater, dance, digital technology, etc.

As every year, this year too the Emerging Greeks Award is awarded to five films participating in the competition section, the Documentary Award from Musou Music Group, but also the Short Award from Illuseum Berlin.

The closing of the festival is expected to be just as strong, with the German premiere of “Carmen’s Summer” by Zacharias Mavroidis, a well-crafted Greek queer drama, which was presented in the summer in the Giornate Degli Autori competition section of the Venice Film Festival.

* DW is a communication sponsor of The Greek Film Festival in Berlin