“Art cannot be threatened by uninvited inquisitors” declares SYRIZA, on the occasion of the reaction of the Niki party of Dimitris Natsios for the poster of the movie “Stray Bodies”.

“An uninvited inquisitor of the “Niki” party demanded, through his parliamentary topical question, that the documentary “Stray Bodies” by Elina Psykou be punished as “blasphemous”. Fortunately, no such obscurantism can touch our society and above all it cannot shake our democratic freedoms. We reply to these gentlemen and to the middle ages they represent, that we invite the world to be at the screening of the documentary at the Thessaloniki Festival, in order to raise a shield of democracy against their dangerous views” emphasizes the culture department head of the SYRIZA-PS KO, Sunday Malama.

The film follows the story of three women and the synopsis reads: “Robin is pregnant, but she doesn’t want to be a mother. Katerina wants to but can’t. Kiki just wants to die with dignity. But abortion, IVF and euthanasia respectively are not legal in their countries. Stray Bodies explores bodily autonomy in a Europe where you are allowed to travel, work and consume freely, but not always to live or die as you wish.

Elina Psykou’s new film is a documentary in the form of a road movie. His heroines travel through an increasingly conservative Europe, claiming nothing less than autonomy and self-determination of their bodies. Their journey is unbearably serious and hopelessly funny, their demands urgent, their rebuttal flimsy but often resonant, the outcome ambiguous.

A documentary about legal paradoxes, artificial borders and social inequalities but above all a documentary about life, death and even more about the right to choose between the two”.

“Blasphemy and unsightly poster”

The movie’s poster angered Nikis party MP, Komninos Delveroudis, who submitted a topical question to the Parliament asking for censorship of its visuals, stating among other things: “The film “Stray Bodies” is accompanied by a provocative, blasphemous and unsightly poster, which depicts the figure of a woman, pregnant and topless, crucified , which openly refers to the holy face of the Virgin Mary. The poster in question openly offends morals, blaspheming the holy symbol of the cross and the holy faces of the Crucified Christ and the Virgin Mary, while this unacceptable fact shows, once again, how imperative is the need to restore the criminal provisions for the malicious blasphemy and defamation of religion. Recently Niki, through its president, denounced another misrepresentation, in a Netflix series, where Alexander the Great is presented as a homosexual. When will the dragging of Greece, of our cultural and orthodox religious heritage finally stop?”

The movie trailer