The 27th TiDF spots are directed by choreographer Andi Xhuma, having Thessaloniki as their backdrop

The Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival assigned choreographer Andi Xhuma to direct the spots of its 27th edition, exploring the affinities between cinema and the performative arts.

Iconic landmarks of Thessaloniki, as well as a series of beloved hubs, buildings and spots that beat to the Festival’s pulse, take center stage at the 27th TiDF’s spots. We embark on a wandering across the city, starting from the Heptapyrgion fortress and reaching all the way to the heart of the urban metropolis, at the Port’s Pier A and the historical home ground of the Festival, the Olympion complex. Amidst the anonymity and the rituality of the dark theater, but also out in the open, in the bustling and uninterrupted energy of the streets and the port, the aery and pulsating choreography by Andi Xhuma can be interpreted as an ode to personal expression, as a call to liberation from any form of restraints, but also as a celebratory reassertion of the ancestral ties between the people and their homeland.

Let’s take a look at the 27th TiDF spots:

Heptapyrgion: https://youtu.be/fsuHOQSRK6A

Olympion: https://youtu.be/A4up5ttxNGo

Port: https://youtu.be/oFFzyE5oHhI

Andi Xhuma studied Dance at the State School of Orchestral Art from 2009 to 2012. He was worked as a dancer and choreographer in modern dance, dance theater and body theater productions, having teamed up with a number of directors, choreographers and art teams, such as Yorgos Lanthimos, London’s DV8 Physical Theatre, the CocoonDance Company dance cooperative of artists, dancer Anton Lachky, choreographer Konstantinos Rigos, performer Hannes Langolf and female dancer Ermira Goro. His personal projects have been showcased both on stage and the screen, including the artworks: Normal Day (2015), OK, That’s You, for the Festival of New Choreography hosted by Onassis Stegi, Backstage for the ARC FOR DANCE Festival (2018), Tipping Point for the Kalamata Dance Festival (2019), OIKODOMI for the Athens Epidaurus Festival (2021), and Big Plans (2022). In addition, he worked as a choreographer in the film Murphy’s Law (2024) by Angelos Frantzis, which held its world premiere at the 65th TIFF, as well as in the stage production of the National Theater of Greece Mother Courage and Her Children (2024) directed by Stathis Livathinos. In his own words, what his inner fuel as an artist springs from his concerns over the social phenomena, whereas his overall work revolves around three key pillars: love, death and loneliness.