|
THESSALONIKI GOES TO CANNES |
|
The Greek Film Centre and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival present 6 works-in-progress on Monday July 12 @ 14:15 at the Palais K.
Four Greek fiction feature films and two documentaries in post-production will be presented on Monday, July 12, to the Auditorium K of Palais to the sales agents, distributors and programmers who will attend this year’s Cannes’ Marché du Film. The presentation will be available to film professionals for one week after Marché du Film. |
|
BASTARDS
by NIKOS PASTRAS – Greece, 2021
Drama, Comedy |
|
 |
|
PRODUCERS: Nicholas Alavanos, Nikos Pastras
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Sofia Dimopoulou, Fragiskos Xidianos, Jake Craven, Andreas Zoupanos-Kritikos, Anastasia Manola
Five boys and five girls, far away from the rules of a suffocating society they create their own community. They occupy a large house in the mid- dle of nowhere and decide to live there together. The balance will soon be upset, relationships will be tested, but they will find a way to remain free, for as long as “together” lasts. True friendships that are bastardized with newfound emotional attractions that go beyond gender and race, improvisation games, confessional atmosphere and a world that is ready, or at least willing, to be torn down to be built from scratch.
|
|
BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS
by ASIMINA PROEDROU – Greece, Germany, North Macedonia, 2021
Social-Family Drama |
|
 |
|
PRODUCERS: Ioanna Bolomyti, Markus Halberschmidt, Vladimir Anastasov, Angela Nestorovska
PRODUCTION: Argonauts SA (Greece)
COPRODUCTION: FICTION PARK (Germany), Sektor Film (North Macedonia)
CO-FINANCED BY: Greek Film Centre
Stergios is a middle-aged fisherman and farmer living in a lakeside Greek village on the border with North Macedonia, together with his wife, Maria and their daughter, Anastasia. Stergios is afraid of going to jail for a fraud he had committed some time ago, and starts to traffic migrants across the border lake to repay the money he took. But soon he finds himself trapped in a deadly game between the local mafia and his conscience, while his family starts falling apart.
|
|
DOGWATCH
by GREGORIS RENTIS – Greece, France, 2021
Ηybrid |
|
 |
|
PRODUCERS: Gregoris Rentis, Vicky Miha, Clément Duboin, Florence Cohen
PRODUCTION: BYRD (Greece)
CO-FINANCED BY: Greek Film Centre
Privately-hired mercenaries are responsible for protecting vessels crossing the High Risk Area off the Somali coastline against pirate attacks. Rigorously preparing to face the enemy, each watch brings them closer to the day of contact. Yet the sea is full of surprises. Or lack thereof.
|
|
EX
by GEORGE MARKAKIS – Greece, Germany
Fiction Film |
|
 |
|
PRODUCERS: George Markakis, Christopher Cornelsen
PRODUCTION: Cornelsen Films (Germany)
CO-PRODUCTION: I have my Art (Germany)
While the dancefloor is mythologised as a space for connection, any committed creature of the night knows the real action takes place in the toilet cubicle - at once the club’s engine room and its "confessional" booth. EX depicts the realities of these sacred spaces with a nauseating intimacy, bundling us in with Diana and a flurry of gorgeous party people for one night of sublime chaos. Opening the door to Berlin’s notoriously private nightlife, EX invites us to see more than reckless hedonism. As its characters share stories about lives lived at the fringes of society, a deeper connection unravels, sparking soul-baring moments of clarity, acceptance, and unapologetic truth.
|
|
INTO THE LAND OF ICE AND FIRE
by DIMITRA ZIROU – Greece, Norway, 2021
Ethnographic Documentary |
|
 |
|
PRODUCERS: Nikos Moustakas, Nancy Kokolaki
PRODUCTION: Bad Crowd
CO-PRODUCERS: ERT SA, Media, Norwegian Arts Council
CO-FINANCED BY: Greek Film Centre
The film is inspired by the contemporary life of the indigenous people inhabiting the European arctic region, the Sami, widely known as Lapp. After twenty years of researching and photographing the European arctic and its indigenous inhabitants, the Greek award-winning film director Dimitra Zirou, begins to film an art documentary inspired by this distant land and its people. Two parallel stories, are gradually unfolding the everyday life of two very different persons: 86 year - old Sara, one of the few remaining keepers of Sami oral tradition and Mihka, a 7 year-old Sami boy, both living in Guovdageaidnu - Kautokeino, a remote small town in the middle of the Norwegian arctic tundra. The film is observing their life during an one- year’s cycle, through the changing of the arctic seasons as they shift from the long winter’s darkness to the summer’s never-setting light.
|
|
WINTER WITH VALMIRA
by MARIA DOUZA – Greece, Bulgaria, 2021
Social, Family, Drama |
|
 |
|
PRODUCERS: Michael Sarantinos, Ivan Tonev
PRODUCTION: Steficon S.A. (Greece), ERT, ARS-Digital (Bulgaria), Bulgarian Film Fund
CO-FINANCED BY: Greek Film Centre
When deaf teenager Valmira comes to live to her father’s island away from her special Athens school, she faces the possibility of prejudice and discrimination. Aris, a Bulgarian kind-hearted boy, bullied at school offers to become her friend and ally. But Valmira misjudging reality — because of her impairment — looks down at him and mixes up with bullies' leader Marios, deeply hurting Aris and triggering a violent conflict between the boys. When Marios goes to hospital seriously ill, Aris does an act of profound humanity leading to Valmira’s humble realization of her misconceptions and the reconciliatory ending of the film.
|
|
CORA
by EVI KALOGIROPOULOU – Greece, 2022, 90 min. |
|
 |
|
PRODUCER: Amanda Livanou
PRODUCTION: Neda Films (Greece)
Director Evi Kalogiropoulou (Motorway 65, Court Métrage Competition 2020) returns to the Cannes Film Festival with her first feature length project. A dystopian town ruled by the imposing oil refinery and its gun-toting townsmen, two women fall in love and struggle for identity, belonging, and escape.
|
|
|
