TUESDAY 19 DECEMBER 2023
CINE ELEUSIS
Central Hall
15:00-17:00
Masterclass
SYLLAS TZOUMERKAS
“The experience of live filming”
17:00
KEVEZOU
KATERINA MARKOULAKI
Premiere
(2023, 33΄)
SUMMARY
Kevezou: in the Pontic dialect, one who talks a lot (chatterbox). Ms Parthena is indeed a chatty saleswoman and coffee shop owner of Pontic and Kazakh descent. At the Panagia Soumela festival, passers-by, neighbours, and friends stop by the stall that Ms Parthena sets up every year, for her advice, goods for sale, fortune-telling, jokes, and sweet talk. The film tracks the kevezou Ms Parthena during the festival, while we also witness the relationship that develops between her and the director, as they overcome (or not) their differences, exchange experiences, opinions, and sometimes even glances.
HERE AGAIN
CHRISTIANA CHIRANAGNOSTAKI
Premiere
(2023, 32΄)
SUMMARY
The documentary Here Again is a portrait of the wetland of Vourkari in Megara through the everyday moments of people who live or work there. Manthos, Stratis, and Kaiti, each in their own way, reveal the different facets of the area.
FIRST MILK
PANAGIOTIS PAPAFRAGKOS
Premiere
(2023, 33’)
Discussion with the directors will follow.
SUMMARY
The sheep were like people, crying, revelling, laughing. The ones called orphans followed us everywhere, seeking their mothers. And when Easter came and some were slaughtered, we cried too. Then there were new births, and slowly the herd grew again.
19:30
MY MOTHER IS A SAINT
SYLLAS TZOUMERKAS
(2023, 8΄)
SUMMARY
A mother’s meeting with her son in her hometown takes an unexpected turn.
ΤΗΕ VOICE
DOMINIKA MONTEAN-PAŃKÓW
(2022, 73΄)
SUMMARY
The order of the Jesuit monastery in Poland puts its students to the ultimate test. Isolated from society and the comforts of modern civilisation, young men ponder relentlessly for two long years whether the spiritual life is right for them. Gaining access to a special sanctuary, the documentary records the first lectures attended by the future clergymen, which oscillate between dazzle, terror, delirium, need, love, madness, and sanity. “If you shut yourself up in a hut, you will taste the fruits of simple daily life,” says an elderly monk. As the empty desert shots reflect the experiences of the young novices, the mystical rhythm of the soundscape gives off an aura of meditation.
21:30
MOTHER OF DAUGHTERS
ELKE LEHRENKRAUSS & YOULA BOUDALI
(2023, 17΄)
SUMMARY
A mother loses her daughter to femicide. Instead of raging at the world, she mourns in her own different way: by stepping out, speaking publicly, and fighting to swap patriarchy for love, for the sake of our society. By interweaving everyday moments with our protagonist’s story, the film tries to describe the banality of this evil. Mothers of Daughters transcends the boundaries of documentary filmmaking by seeking poetically and sensitively to find imagery for this incredible story, that could happen to any of us.
UNDER THE SKY OF DAMASCUS
TALAL DERKI, HEBA KHALED, ALI WAJEEH
(2023, 88΄)
SUMMARY
A tight-knit group of five Syrian women decide to undertake a radical project: producing a play that exposes the culture of misogyny and sexual abuse that has plagued the lives of women in the country for generations. Farah, Eliana, Inana, Souhir, and Grace want to denounce female oppression, but they know that their production will bring them even greater obstacles to finding work. Joining forces with Syrian filmmakers in exile, namely Heba Khaled (in her first feature film) and Talal Derki (director of the Oscar-nominated Of Fathers and Sons), and Ali Wajeeh from the heart of Damascus, the women scatter across a war-torn city to collect personal stories that will form the basis of their work. They record testimonies of people from across the socio-economic spectrum, from actresses and factory workers to mothers and housewives. The result reveals different variations of the same painful narrative: stories of abuse, blackmail, and even stories of women held captive by husbands, brothers, fathers, employers, and men in positions of power; men who, under a patriarchal system of oppression, are allowed to exercise unchecked power, keeping women trapped, denying them access to justice. But the issues addressed in both the play and the film are far more topical than they seem… Just as the filmmakers and cast are making strides in completing their apocalyptic project, a member of the team unexpectedly resigns. As the truth behind her decision is revealed, all the participants are confronted − shockingly − with the same exploitation they were trying to capture.
Lounge – Small Screens
20:00-00:00
SMALL SCREEN 1 | MYSTERIES: ONE YEAR IN ONE HOUR
SUMMARY
Can just one screen fit all the Mysteries of an entire year? The following Mysteries appear – rawly and randomly: Mystery 3 Elefsina Mon Amour, Mystery 16 Τogether! A Circus Invitation, Mystery 19 Visual Arts Initiator III – But Don’t Tell Anyone, Mystery 20 Performing Arts Initiator –Narrative Archaeology, Mystery 34 Faces of Elefsina, Mystery 38 Music From the Inside, Mystery 42 Futuring Waters, Mystery 43 School of Waves and Weeds, Mystery 48 Constellations, Mystery 57 Climbing Over Elefsina – Revisiting the Landscapes of Elefsina, Mystery 60 metamorphoSEA, Mystery 62 Nuits de Lenteur – À Propos du Temps, Mystery 69 Greekies, Mystery 73 Cinema Paradise: Industries of Coexistence, Mystery 76 Don’t Look Back, Mystery 89 Elefsina by Night, Mystery 91 Magnetic Dance, Mystery 99 The Ark, Mystery 100 Sacred Songs, Mystery 106 Chamomile – Transit, Mystery 109 The Higgs Particle, Mystery 113 A Celebration to Change the World, Mystery 114 Everything Open, Mystery 115 Big and Small Ships, Mystery 118 Through Rupture Comes the Flow, Mystery 119 Humanosphère, Mystery 127 Horses in Love, Mystery 128 Crows, Mystery 132 Sky Above Elefsina, Mystery 134 Persephone, the Red Carpet, Mystery 139 Alienation, Mystery 140 Blind Guide, Mystery 142 Oh So Now Eleusis Is Growing Wheat!, Mystery 154 Live Music Acts, Mystery 166 State of Emergency, Mystery 168 Mobile Solar Cinema, Mystery 182 Sunday’s ADVENT, Mystery 183 Apothéri Project: An Experimental Contemporary Street Festival, Mystery 189 Myths and Legends of Elefsina: The Mysteries of Clay, Mystery 200 Mythological Gardens, Mystery 299 How to Change our Mind to Change the World.
SMALL SCREEN 2 | MYSTAE: THE ELEFSINIANS PARTICIPATE
Throughout these years, there have been projects that have traversed the Elefsinian and wider Thriasian Plain, opening up to their local communities, exchanging thoughts and ideas, gradually and steadily creating new ceremonial ways of dealing with reality. From the colourful mosaic of Elefsina to the rural communities of Aspropyrgos and the manufacturing centres of Megara, a network of mystae [initiates] began to set up and operate in West Attica. These are some of the most defining moments in their formation, always committed – and therefore decisive – to the realisation of the artistic vision of 2023 Eleusis.
SMALL SCREEN 3 | DEMYSTIFICATIONS: THE CREATORS IN THE LIGHT
Some of the most renowned and acclaimed contemporary creators came to Elefsina, experienced the energy of the place, and presented their works as confessions of this experience. The third section is dedicated to these testimonies. The following individuals and collectives stand before the lens of Pantelis Ladas and Aggeliki Nikolari: Patricia Apergi and the six choreographers from the Academy of Choreography, Beforelight, Romeo Castellucci, Eleftheria Deko and the Dancetheater company, Marina Fokidi, Panos Giannikopoulos, Katerina Gregos, Gemma Hanson, Yannis Houvardas, Lampros Liavas, Yolanta Markopoulou, Sasha Waltz & Jochen Sandig, Iannis Zannos, and the visual artists from V.A. Initiator (Vlad Brâteanu, James Bridle, Athina Koumparouli, Esmeralda Momferatou, Susan Philipsz, Angelo Plessas, Yorgos Sapountzis, Flavia Stagi, Heidi Voet, Alexander Wolframm).
OLD ORFEAS MOVIE THEATRE
17:00-21:00
MYSTERY 110 ORFEAS
EVA STEFANI
(art installation)
A work in the window of the old Orpheas cinema, next to the archaeological site of Elefsina. A story through broken images about man’s transition from darkness to light. Man alone, facing the inevitability of death and the inevitability of life. While wandering, he strives to free the soul from matter.
