On the occasion of ten years since the creation of the Hellenic-German Fund for the Future, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Athens and the Goethe Institute are organizing a three-day screening of documentaries that shed light on the complex, sometimes conflicting and sometimes complementary, Greek-German intersections (Omirou 14-16, Athens).
How is transgenerational trauma transmitted in a place where National Socialists committed crimes? How relevant can the “Song of Songs”, with lyrics by Iakovos Campanellis and music by Mikis Theodorakis, be, 79 years after the liberation of the Nazi camps? How are concepts of homeland and foreignness given meaning in the biographies of people who move not only spatially and temporally, but also between ideological and political systems? Are there different Greek-German identities and what do they mean to those who carry them? Can art shape the way we deal with the trauma of the Holocaust and how it changes over time?
Five documentaries will be shown over the three days from October 11th to 13th, 2024 at the Goethe Institute, in the presence of their creators. The projects were implemented with funding from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, coming from resources from the Hellenic-German Fund for the Future. A discussion with the public and a small reception will follow. Free entry.
Thematic sections
11.10.2024 Reconciliation with martyred cities and villages
12.10.2024 Shaping a Greek-German memory
13.10.2024 Reconciliation with Jewish communities
Detailed exhibition program:
Friday, October 11, 2024
17:00
The Balcony – Memories of Possession
by Chrysantho Konstantinidis, 2017
105 (in Greek with German subtitles)
In the presence of the director
19:30
Mauthausen
by Aristarcos Papadaniel, 2023
91 (in Greek with English subtitles)
Film summaries
The Balcony – Memories of Possession
03/10/1943: German mountaineer commandos invade the village of Ligiades, indiscriminately kill babies, children, women, elderly people and set fire to houses. The next day, a 14-month-old baby was found alive by its residents breastfeeding its dead mother, wounded by a bayonet in the back.
1989: German historian Christoph U. Schminck-Gustavus visits the village, records the testimonies of the 5 survivors and investigates the German archives.
2018: Post-war generations hear tapes of testimonies from their ancestors who survived Nazi crime for the first time. Evidence, memories, grief are captured in the documentary, highlighting the collective trauma left by the Nazi atrocity.
Mauthausen
The new film project by Mikis Theodorakis (music) and Iakovos Campanellis (poetry) directed by Panagiotis Kountouras, Aristarchos Papadaniiel and produced by Syllipsis is an idiosyncratic poetic and musical feature-length documentary, presenting the new approach to the Mauthausen Cantata performed by Aristarchos Papadaniiel (voice) and Ari Zerva (cello), which was released with the permission of important Greek composer and political activist Mikis Theodorakis (Zorbas, Z, Serpico) a month before his death.
The film also presents the unpublished text “Mouthausen’s Journey – May 1988”, a more personal script by the survivor of the Mauthausen concentration and extermination camp, progenitor of modern post-war Greek theater and academic Iakovos Kampanellis (Stella, The Dragon, Girls in the Sun), which was his unrealized vision and 35 years after its initial conception, took its definitive form, in the place where it was witnessed, but also inspired, in the current Mauthausen Memorial, in Austria, within the scope of the International Liberation Movement Memorial Anniversary.
Director biographies
Chrysanthos Konstantinidis, originally from the Ligiades of Ioannina, was born and lives in Athens. He studied cinematography and artistic photography. Since 2005 he has worked in cinema and television. In 2018 he created his first documentary “The Balcony – Memories of the Occupation” In 2020 he collaborated with the Free University of Berlin creating the documentary “Memories of the Occupation of Greece” on the “MOG” platform. In 2021, he collaborates with the Hellenic Scout Corps creating the documentary “With a heart full of courage – Scouts in Occupation”. His film “The Balcony – Memories of the Occupation” was shown in cinemas in Greece and Germany and on television stations “ERT”, “Cosmote”, “Ant1 plus”. Selected from 200 DocsBarcelona films for the “NEXTUS” platform and screening in Spain, Chile, Colombia. It is included in the film collections of the “Federal Organization for Civic Education in Germany”, the “State Pedagogical Institute of Rhineland-Palatinate” and the “State Media Center Baden-Württemberg”.
Aristarchos Papadaniel is the author of the book “Greek Political Drawings: The Serious Side of a Funny Art”. Co-creator of the first series of Greek educational cartoons “One Letter, One Story” (produced by: Educational Radio and Television, Ministry of Education), about the alphabet and the Greek language. Co-editor of the book “70 Years of Greek Animation” (Greekanimation.com-ASIFA Hellas). Co-founder of the creative agency Syllipsis and founding member of ASIFA Hellas. Aristarco composed and performed Cavafy’s poetry in the audiovisual epigram “The city (where my eyes revolve)”. In 2021, he performed with cellist Aris Zervas the “Mauthausen Cantata” in poetry by Iakovos Campanellis, and would be the last interpreter of a work released with the authorization of our main composer Mikis Theodorakis, just a month before graduating. The award-winning feature film “MAUTHAUSEN” (91′, 2023), co-directed by filmmaker Panagiotis Kountouras and produced by Syllipsis, was presented, among others, at the Athens Academy and the Delphi Economic Forum.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
17:00
Zwischen Heimat und Fremde (“Between Homeland and Foreign Land”)
by Susanne Grütz and Kostas Kipuros, 2024
47′ (in German and Greek with Greek and German subtitles respectively)
In the presence of the director
19:00
With two suitcases
by Kostas Avgeris, 2021
66′ (in Greek with English subtitles)
Film summaries
Zwischen Heimat und Fremde (“Between Homeland and Foreign Land”)
“Between Homeland and Foreign Land” is the title of a documentary film about the story of political refugees from the Greek Civil War, who fled between 1949 and 1950 to East Germany and later to the German Democratic Republic. Around 1,300 refugees, most of them children and teenagers, found a new home there. Much has been written and said about these people and the political context of their migration. The two creators of the documentary, Susanne Grütz and Kostas Kipouros, did not want to tell their story, but rather to talk to them about their life between the country and abroad. At the heart of this largely unknown chapter of German history is the personal story of these people. Their life in the old homeland, the way they experienced the civil war, their arrival in Germany/Saxony and life in the new homeland, as well as their subsequent return to Greece. This is how a moving document of very personal memories of the people of that time was created, who tell their story in interviews. The conversations are complemented by photographs, film excerpts and also the corresponding historical context. The picture is completed by the memories of the children of civil war refugees.
With two suitcases
Documentary with narratives from speakers who share personal experiences based on the interaction of Greek-German culture in their lives. The documentary highlights, through the history, experience and trajectory of the speakers, the influences received by modern Greeks in Germany and, conversely, by Germans from the Greeks who were there. they are enlightened people, immigration, education, work, language. Stories of friendship, fears, cooperation, symbiosis, relationships, stereotypes and their deconstruction There are many Greeks who attended German schools, who studied in Germany, who grew up and/or worked and who returned to Greece and passed on their experiences and knowledge. they acquired or remained in Germany or still live and work between the two countries, enriching the cultures of both countries. Many stood out in their chosen field, left their personal mark, made a difference. And this personal stigma is largely due precisely to the coexistence of the two cultures, to the combination and complementarity of elements from two cultures and two different systems, which have met many times throughout history in a negative way, but also in a positive way. .
Director biographies
Susanne Grütz lives as a freelance artist and educator in Leipzig. In addition to being a singer on several music programs, she works as a documentary producer and graphic designer. For the filming and photos of this documentary, he traveled with Kostas Kipouros to Athens, Patras and Alexandroupolis.
Kostas Kipouros, son of a Greek refugee from the civil war, was born in 1956 in Bucharest. He grew up in Leipzig, where he studied journalism at university. From 1979 until his retirement he worked as a foreign policy editor at the Leipzig newspaper “Leipziger Volkszeitung”, for which he wrote numerous articles, comments and analyses. Since 1977 he has traveled regularly to Greece. He is the author of the book “Between home and abroad”, in which political refugees from the Greek civil war tell the story of their migration from Greece to the GDR.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
17:00
The Art of Memory (special exhibition)
by Anneta Papathanasiou, 2024
80′ (in Greek with English subtitles)
In the presence of the director
Synopsis of the film
“The Art of Memory” is a documentary about the work of Greek Jewish artist Artemis Alkalai and her thirty-year artistic career. An investigation into trauma, memory, healing and reconciliation. Artemis Alkalai presents his works, tells the story of his family and reveals the ways in which in recent years, consciously or unconsciously, explicitly or implicitly, collective trauma, silenced family histories and the memory of the genocide of Greek Jews. A visual route, an intangible meeting point for love and healing from the trauma of the History of the Holocaust.
Director biography
Actor and director. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Athens (Department of Economics) and the E. Xatzikou Theater School. He studied theater at HB Studio and New York University (NYU) and cinematography at E. Hatzikou’s Film School. He works as an actor in theater and television. He collaborated with several theater stages, with the National Theater and DIPETHE. She is co-founder of the Eliart Theater in Athens. Published books on theater: “Lights Please”, “Theatroplays” (KEDPOS publications). He is a member and former president of the Greek Documentary Association.
He directed theater and cinema, mainly documentaries focusing on human stories. His films were shown in several countries and won international awards in Italy, Spain, China, USA, etc. Indicative filmography: “Laughing in Afghanistan” “Europe, the Dream” “Playing with Fire”, “The Nymphs of the Hindu Kush”, “After the Tsunami – Sumatra”, “Qadir, an Afghan Ulysses”, “I Will Grow Wings” .
