GREEK CREATORS – 8 April
On Friday, 8 April 2005 a press conference was given by the creators Kalliopi Legaki, (“Elias Petropoulos – A world underground”), Katerina Patroni, (“The Painting”), Elias Yannakakis, (“Walter the Greek”), and Maria Leonida, (“Adriana in Athens”), regarding their films which are being screened within the framework of the 7th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – Images of the 21st Century. At the press conference, the star of Elias Yannakakis’ film Walter Lasali was present, as well as the well known director Lakis Papastathis from the television show “Backstage”.
Kalliopi Legaki: Elias Petropoulos – A World Underground
Kalliopi Legaki’s film presents the portrait and pays tribute to Elias Petropoulos. An uneasy and questioning spirit, an adversary of academics and of the establishment, Petropoulos was the first folklorist in Greece to take an interest in the marginalised, and described people and things treated contemptuously by the official history of his country. Kalliopi Legaki’s lens meets him in his office in Paris, where he has lived in self exile for the last thirty years when, disappointed by his country’s politics and tired of the successive persecutions and imprisonments, he decided to abandon Greece. In this, his last interview - he died of cancer a few months later – Petropoulos transports us to unknown places of our traditions and Greekness, and introduces us to all those people of the social underground that predominated in his books.
“My relationship with Petropoulos began through his books, when in ’82 I first read ’The Good Thief’s Handbook’ which at that time had become the bible of students and intellectuals. Since then I continued reading the books of this strange writer, and when I took my first steps in documentary making, I thought of making a film about him. The approach was slow, but finally contact was made and I met with him in Paris. When a suit wearing gentleman opened the door to me, it was impossible for me to reconcile the image I had formed of Petropoulos from reading his books with what I saw standing before me. But as soon as we started talking, the two images immediately merged” she characteristically said. Moreover, in answering a question as to whether she tried to make a film similar to a book Petropoulos would write she noted: “ I had to fight with my material and with everything that was missing – because we unfortunately lost him very early – and to get everything across in the film. So I searched through my writing and the narration of the film is in the first person, because I am using the words and writings of Petropoulos himself. So I didn’t think that this was sacrilege”. In conclusion she stressed: “The soul of Petropoulos permeates the film through the people who speak about him, people of the ‘social underground’ who he loved so much and respected.”
Katerina Patroni: The Painting
Katerina Patroni’s film is about the making of a painting. She follows little Kimmo, who spends all day near the lake gathering leaves, mud and colours, and then paints. “The film was shot a year and a half ago in Finland during 15 days” the creator mentioned and noted: “ What I wanted to explore is how I can film the process of the creation of a painting without betraying the work of art, that is how my film could simulate the work of art” In conclusion, Katerina Patroni said: “I tried to find the way in which I can show this story, without too many words, only with images that match Kimmo’s style of painting.”
Maria Leonida: Adriana in Athens
“Adriana in Athens” is a film that follows the life of 17 year old Adriana, a country girl – from Paros - who moved to Athens with her father and her brother after her parents’ divorce. Under these circumstances, she has many things to deal with. She has to compete in the Pan Hellenic examinations for a admission to the university, she has to struggle to fill the role of home maker at her house, to find ways of maintaining her relationship with her mother who has remained in Paros, and to continue athletic practice so as not to disappoint her father. All these add to her daily pressures, but the point is whether she will be able to discover her self and be able to make her choices.
“This film is part of a German series, and so I had to find someone who personifies the Greek reality. When I chose Adriana and witnessed the small everyday battles she has to fight, I thought that she is the person who matches the style and character of the particular series”, the creator Maria Leonida explained and continued “ But the more the film progressed the more I discovered her clashes with her father. And I believe that she herself, through the process of shooting, became aware of these clashes and their nature and that she had to discover herself.”
Elias Yannakakis: Walter the Greek
This film is about Walter Lasali, one of the foremost Directors of Photography in international cinema in the post war era, who is one of the most important contributors to Free Cinema. He began his collaboration with Michalis Kakogiannis, and at the same time his long standing relationship with Greece in 1955. In 1965 he was awarded the Oscar for Best Photography for the film Zorba the Greek. In the last few years he has returned and is living in the small village of Stavros, where Zorba was shot, and he has donated his Oscar to the local taverna. Elias Yannakakis stressed: “I have wanted to make a portrait of Walter Lasali for many years now, and I tried to render this portrait as accurately as possible, because I believe that the recording of his case is important, “ Elias Yannakakis stressed.
