For its tenth anniversary, the Greek Film Festival in Berlin offers another five days of screenings. The innovative program has benefitted both German and international audiences alike. Once again the screenings take place at Berlin’s legendary Babylon Mitte Cinema. Originating in 2016 the festival was initially known as Hellas Filmbox Berlin. Festival director Sofia Stavrianidou and her team rebranded to its current name in 2020. Since 2022 the festival has also travelled to Frankfurt and from 2023 in Cologne too.
This year the Opening Film is Stelios, directed by Yorgos Tsemberopoulos. It showcases the life of legendary singer Stelios Kazantzidis. Coming from a Pontic refugee family, his immense talent helped him overcome social and personal challenges. With his “Laiko” (a Greek folk-pop music genre) songs he won the hearts of a nation. For an opening film on the festival’s tenth edition, Stelios has an appropriately Greek celebratory factor.
Another intriguing main competition section features this year. Six films are competing for the best prize award in the section called Emerging Greeks Competition. All films are Berlin, German or International Premieres. Brando with a Glass Eye is directed by Antonis Tsonis. Set in the Greek capital, Athens, it concerns a heist that goes wrong and subsequent redemption. Killerwood by Christos Massalas blends fiction with perceived notions of reality. The premise of a young director’s film is a list of unsolved murders in Athens. However, could they be the work of a real-life serial killer?
Aside from Athens, images of Greece that come to mind are the countless Islands. In Kyuka: Before Summer’s End by Kostis Charamountanis, the island of Poros is the setting. It is summer and a single father and his adolescent twin children sail to the island. By chance they will meet their mother, who abandoned them when they were babies. More remote exotic islands are the setting for Maldives by Daniel Bolda. This time the family is a man and his dog in the secluded mountains. However the man’s world turns upside down when the dog disappears.
Back to Greece and domesticity again is Riviera by Orfeas Peretzis. When her mother announces they will leave, Alkistis contemplates one final summer living on the Athenian Riviera. Finally, Meat, by Dimitris Nakos is set in a village in the Greek countryside. After opening his butcher shop, Takis is confronted with truth and loyalty. When his son kills a neighbor who claimed part of their land there is one witness. Trouble is that he is also a long-term employee of Takis.
The 2025 Competition Jury is: Simone Baumann (Germany), Nikos Smpiliris (Greece) and Dr. Martin Blaney (UK). They are also the Documentary Jury.
~ By Steven Yates