Athens: Astron Film center November 29-December 5
Thessaloniki: Pavlos Zanas December 6-12
In cooperation with Prooptiki A.E. and the French Institute of Athens Communications sponsors: Ta Nea, Tahidromos
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival is holding a tribute to the work of Costa Gavras, the famous Greek director. Nine of the director’s films, who has a total of 19 films to his credit, have been chosen for the tribute, based on their historicity as well as their importance as films in and of themselves.
The tribute will raise its curtain in Athens on November 29 at the Astron Film center and will then be moved to Thessaloniki at the Pavlos Zanas theater on December 6. For the presentation of the tribute but also for the Greek premiere AMEN, Costa Gavras will visit Greece in order to be present at the screening of his latest film on Friday, December 6 at the Olympion theater. Two other films aside from Amen will have their Greek premiere during the tribute, even if belatedly. A Family Affair and Small Apocalypse, two of the director’s French productions, will be screened in our country for the first time.
Finally, the director will be present at the press conference organized by the French Institute of Athens and Prooptiki A.E. for the premiere of Amen on Tuesday, December 3 in the Auditorium of the French Institute. There, in addition to the director, the panel will consist of Michel Demopoulos, Director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Fanny Aubert-Malaurie, cultural attaché of the French Institute of Athens and Irini Souganidou, Managing Director of Prooptiki A. E.
AMEN
“The Vatican is an instrument of power. It reacts to situations just as other states do, without concern for theological matters and even less for morality. The Pope is the emanation of this power. In the film, he appears completely undefined: a figure, a stereotyped image. His reality is his environment, his appearance, his speech… Religion exists in the core of human societies not to go along with state power, but to have the power of principles and morals. The Church during this period, as at other times, is not doing its job. It has placed itself in the position of a state, stigmatized by diplomacy and political strategy and not by any higher morality.”
These words belong to Costa Gavras and refer to his latest film, Amen (2002), the film that will close the tribute to the director, making its official premiere here, which – like the Music Box – refers to the Holocaust and the need to restore historical memory.
A film that shocked the Vatican with its subject and its poster, demonstrating how timely and powerful Gavras’ cinema remains. A cinema revolving around the constellation of politics and sensitivity to the great problems that continue to absorb 21st century people.
Films in the tribute:
1. Compartiment Tueurs, 1965. 2. Ζ, 1969. 3. L’Aveu, 1970. 4. Etat de Siege, 1973. 5. Clair de Femme, 1979. 6. Conseil de Famille, 1986. 7.La Petite Apocalypse, 1993. 8. Mad City, 1997. 9. Amen, 2002.
