Mystical World of Ancient Greece(1996)

Like Stone Lions in the Gateway into Night(fr)

Between 1947 and 1951, more than 80 000 Greek men, women and children were deported to the isle of Makronissos (Greece) in reeducation camps created to ‘fight the spread of Communism’. Among those exiles were a number of writers and poets, including Yannis Ritsos and Tassos Livaditis. Despite the deprivation and torture, they managed to write poems which describe the struggle for survival in this world of internment. These texts, some of them buried in the camps, were later found. «Like Lions of stone at the gateway of night» blends these poetic writings with the reeducation propaganda speeches constantly piped through the camps’ loudspeakers. Long tracking shots take us on a trance-like journey through the camp ruins, interrupted along the way by segments from photographic archives. A cinematic essay, which revives the memory of forgotten ruins and a battle lost.

1940-41: Greece, the First Victory(en)

This major Documentary reveals the true story of the first victory of the Allies over the Axis powers. It is the Victory at the Battle of Greece! The Documentary portrays the tenacity of the Greek soldiers during WW2, which forced Hitler to disperse his forces in a manner unfavorable to his strategic objectives. It catalyzed the alliance between Britain and the United States and resulted in aborting the Axis plans in the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and the Eastern Front. During the first thirteen months of the war, Hitler's unstoppable war machine had occupied seven European countries and had enslaved a population of 120 million by fighting for less than three months. The surprising seven-month-long Greek resistance to the invading armies of Italy and Germany that followed in 1940-194, gave the Greeks the first Allied victories on land and became a beacon of hope and an inspiration to freedom-loving countries everywhere.

Exarcheia, le chant des oiseaux(fr)

My Human Self(el)

The inspiring story of the unemployed man who stood up against the Greek crisis and created a social kitchen for the homeless and refugees.

Lost in the Bewilderness(en)

Lost in the Bewilderness is a feature-length documentary about the filmmaker’s cousin Lucas, kidnapped at age five from his native Greece, and found on the eve of his 16th birthday in the US. This story of international parental abduction, filmed for over twenty years, chronicles Lucas’s journey of growth and self-discovery, and culminates with Lucas becoming a father himself. Lost in the Bewilderness is not only a detective story but also a lyrical meditation on childhood, lost and found, and an exploration of how the themes of ancient Greek myth and tragedy, with the family at their center, are still very much alive in the modern world.

Mourning Rock(el)

A documentary about Eleusina. The past and the present, in complete antithesis, coexist in a place spoiled by modern industry but which long ago hosted the Eleusinian Mysteries, the secret ceremonies that initiated the ancient Greeks into the miracles of life, death and the afterlife.

The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization(en)

It was perhaps the most spectacular flourishing of imagination and achievement in recorded history. In the Fourth and Fifth Centuries BC, the Greeks built an empire that stretched across the Mediterranean from Asia to Spain. They laid the foundations of modern science, politics, warfare and philosophy, and produced some of the most breathtaking art and architecture the world has ever seen. This series, narrated by Liam Neeson, recounts the rise, glory, demise and legacy of the empire that marked the dawn of Western civilization. The story of this astonishing civilization is told through the lives of heroes of ancient Greece. The latest advances in computer and television technology rebuild the Acropolis, recreate the Battle of Marathon and restore the grandeur of the Academy, where Socrates, Plato and Aristotle forged the foundation of Western thought.

Make Love Not Porn(el)

Against the stereotypes of the “ideal” woman and the symbols of Pornography, the women in the works of Greek comic artist Stavros Kioutsioukis preserve their personality: they are the girls next door who try and get their rights in Happiness and Love.

Sappho: Love and Life on Lesbos(en)

Papyrology expert Margaret Mountford goes in search of the truth behind the legend of Sappho, the most controversial writer of the ancient world and the first authentic woman’s voice in Western history. The mysterious discovery of a lost papyrus containing the words to songs unheard for 1700 years sends Margaret on a journey to discover the truth about Sappho. Was she indeed the first lesbian, a priestess, sex worker, a stern schoolmistress or an aristocratic lady of leisure as readers over the centuries have variously alleged? We ask how each generation’s view of the archetypal liberated woman of letters tells us as much about us and our fears as it does about her.

The Search for Alexander the Great(en)

Friends, contemporaries and even enemies of Alexander the Great gather in a tent to tell his tale through their eyes.

The Adventure(en)

In 2011, as tens of thousands of migrants, Loss, and Madess Moussa arrived in Europe via Turkey. Required by EU law to remain in Greece, they only want one thing : to leave. Therefore earn the money needed to start is an obsession and all means are good. The film "The Adventure" follows the lives of these three Ivorians to Athens - their sense of enclosure, strategies to find money, failover illegally, attempts to start - and explores what is at stake, individually and collectively during migration: relations to other migrant communities, friendship, betrayal, solidarity, mafias and violence.

Fascism Inc.(el)

Unknown short stories from the past, the present and the future of fascism and its relation to the economic interests of each era. We will travel from Mussolini’s Italy to Greece under the Nazi occupation, the civil war and the dictatorship; and from Hitler’s Germany to the modern European and Greek fascism.

Golden Times – Cassandra’s Treasure(el)

The exploitation of the country’s mineral wealth is projected as the most reasonable solution to deal with the economic crisis that plagues Greece. The Greek state has ceded its mining rights over 31.700 ha of land in northern Halkidiki, a region rich in gold, copper and other metals, to the Canadian multinational company Eldorado Gold. However, many of the region’s inhabitants, who have been resisting the construction of a goldmine for years, claim that this investment will cause irreparable damage to the environment and the benefits will be fewer than the losses. “Cassandra’s Treasure” presents a detailed picture of the modern Greek state before and during the crisis period.

Alexander's Greatest Battle(en)

Michael Wood travels through Syria and Iraq to uncover the story of Alexander the Great's decisive battle against the might of the Persian Empire in 331 BCE. Ancient writers agreed that it was fought somewhere near the city of Irbil in northern Iraq, but the exact location has never been discovered. Using dramatic new finds in the UK - a cuneiform clay tablet in the British Museum and a papyrus dug up in Egypt - Michael sheds new light on the course of events. Then to reconstruct the campaign, he follows Alexander's route through Damascus and Aleppo to the river Euphrates in Syria and travels into Northern Iraq with the British and US military.

Bread and a Blanket(el)

On December 13 of 1943 the Nazi occupation army in Greece executed all the male population of the town of Kalavryta while burning it to the ground. Three men who witnessed these events as kids remember.

Les secrets du mont Olympe(fr)

Let's Not Live Like Slaves(fr)

Greek Animal Rescue(en)

A gravely ill, abused three-legged stray dog, abandoned in an industrial desert at Aspropyrgos, a town near Athens; a London based charity whose mission is to help the neglected animals of Greece; a group of young volunteers who patrol Aspropyrgos and nurse the strays – these are the characters of the film, in a nightmarish place, a hellhole for many abandoned animals. Does the sick three-legged hound stand any chance of getting adopted, becoming healthy again and running across the fields of Essex? Why are the Greekies, the strays from Greece, so popular when it comes to being adopted abroad? With an unexpected ending, the film tries to discover whether there is any hope for the doomed dogs and for a doomed area outside Athens.

Hélikè, la cité engloutie(fr)

From Dust to Light(en)

Filmed In the heart of the mountainous villages of Greece and North Macedonia, the documentary follows a group of conservators of antiquities and works of art on their journey, with the goal of preserving Byzantine iconography. The dialogue between them and the hagiographers of the past comes to life.