GREEK CREATORS – 8 April
On Friday, 8 April 2005 a press conference was given by , Stelios Kouloglou (“Whistleblowers”), Christos Karakasis, (“The Excursion – Ioannina”, Stelios Haralambopoulos, (“The History of My Time: Manos Zacharias 1968”), Yorgos Botsos, (“Musical Communion”), and Loucia Rikaki, (“The Other”), regarding their films which are being screened within the framework of the 7th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – Images of the 21st Century.
Stelios Kouloglou: Whistleblowers
Seven parallel stories, the stories of seven people who know important secrets which could save human lives, avert military warfare, and bring about peace. Seven everyday people who find themselves faced with the dilemma of either obeying the law and keeping what they know secret, or of revealing the secret truths they know and paying the price. Stelios Kouloglou’s film follows these seven parallel stories, who as their common element and central axis have the ancient moral dilemma of Antigone and Sophocles: to either obey the law or obey higher moral values, risking their freedom and their lives. “I was always interested by the fact that people in every epoch come face to face with the same moral dilemmas. Moreover, when it happens that an historical incident intrudes violently and history turns people into prey, they can also be turned into accidental heroes. And this, I believe, is the reason for my own interest and dramaturgy to develop: it was not so much the result of their actions that interested me, but the journey they went through until they came to that decision and the battles they fought with themselves.”
He characteristically said. Moreover, speaking about the message of his film he noted: “The message is optimistic, in the sense that even today, in the difficult times we live in, and which continue to become more and more difficult due to international situations and conditions, the truth wins in the end and is in some way rewarded. And so, this film is a challenge to the people in Greece who know secrets to come out and reveal them.”
Christos Karakasis: The Excursion – Ioannina
This documentary explores the relationship between time and space and location, and how this is expressed in everyday life and influences people and their habits. “The reason for the film was a nostalgic idea of the director of photography and co-producer, who was the child of immigrants. It was a tour of Ioannina. However, on the way quite a few things changed, as the element of human relationships slipped in, as well as how the location changes people. That is, we saw the relationship between a place which is coarse and tough, one of the poorest areas in Europe, with the people who live in it, and from whom it is essentially asking for its development” the creator characteristically said, and added: “We found people there who helped us very much, and thus a great big puzzle was created. Essentially, the film was built by the people of Ioannina, in spite of our crew, who became a piece of the film, and we a piece of their lives.”
Stelios Haralambopoulos: The History of My Time: Manos Zacharias 1968
During the civil war, Manos Zacharias was part of a small film team in the Democratic Army and he spent 20 years as a political refugee in the Soviet Union. “This film is part of the framework of a series called ‘The History of Times’ whose rationale is to have various Greek creators speak about one of their works, and for them themselves to try and place it into the puzzle of history. So we thought to show the testimony of a man who lived the historical events of that year from a distance, and how they affected him. Besides, the subject of the film of Manos Zacharias himself - ‘One of the Execution Squad’ about a soldier who participates in an execution squad and during a 24 hour leave has his awareness awakened, changes, and makes his own personal revolution, brought to our minds the director himself, who abandoning everything returned to the Greece of the Civil War, joined the Democratic Army, and made a film that cost him dozens of years of exile in foreign lands”, Mr. Haralambopoulos explained and added:
“This film, just like his film, has to do with the idea that at some point a man has to make his decisions and make his choices against History’s dictates. The story of Manos Zacharias who didn’t want to be a puppet but rather an active part of history but rather struck me as something like this. “ Manos Zacharias himself, answering a question on what it was like to be in front of rather than behind the camera noted: “This is not the first time I found myself in front of the camera, I have played small parts in my films and other parts in the films of other creator friends. However, this time it was different, it was a particular case. Because this time it was not a role I was playing, but a kind of rendering of accounts, a testimony of the actions of an entire lifetime.”
Yorgos Botsos: Musical Communion
Yorgos Botsos’ film centers on three people living different lives, a priest from Epiros, a stone cutter from Mytilene, and a professor from Thessaloniki, who all have an amateur interest in music. The first sings demotic (country) songs, the second long drawn out improvisational music with its roots in the middle east, and the last makes musical instruments and plays rebetika (Greek blues). Each one separately unfolds his relationship with music and gives his meaning of friendly company and a good time. Their thoughts and feelings are at odds with each other, they get excited, they clash and through their differences, what emerges is their common need to “exist” through artistic expression and human communication. “We wanted to express that everything is good, life is beautiful”, Yorgos Botsos characteristically said and added:
“We got there exploring things that are significant to these three people, what friendly company means, what alcohol and drinking means, what it means to redeem this expression through music.” Moreover, speaking about the bet he wanted to win he said: “We wanted to win over these three people who trusted us and exposed themselves through this film and at the same time attract the viewers. That is why we found the way we would handle our subject a challenge.”
Loucia Rikaki: The Other
Lucia Rikaki’s film records the special but also characteristic example of the one room school house in the village of Patsideros in Herlakleion, which is the only school in Greece where only one Greek student is attending. Everyone else is Albanian. Everyone is taught equally, something that is ensured by the dedication of the teacher, Yannis Frangiadakis. This is daily work, complex, and lasting all day long, as it is not confined to the classroom, but which eases and secures the co-existence with the Albanians who have arrived to the village the last few years. These immigrants are the ones who work the village land and hope that some day, if not themselves, then their children might put down roots and build a better life than theirs has been. “ When I read in a newspaper that such a school exists, I was immediately interested, because I also as a child lived in Germany, where I had negative experiences of the way I was welcomed to the German school” the film director explained.
Moreover, speaking about the message the film is getting across she noted: “What we are left with in the end is the very vivid element of humanism, a characteristic that these children take and carry with them always and everywhere. And this is very important, as much for the children as for the viewer. Besides, the experience of this film, which covered two school years, was very important to me. I believe I became a better person. “ Present at the press conference was the “star” of the film, Yannis Frangiadakis, who noted: “For us teachers, all the children are the same, regardless of ethnicity, they have the same phobias, the same anxieties, the same stresses, the same thoughts and ideas, which are very different from those of adults. Our basic principle is to not create more problems for them than the ones we solve.”
