Mediterranean Stories

Daraya: A Library Under Bombs

September 2018 •French

At the heart of the Syrian civil war, a group of activists created an underground library in the besieged outskirts of Damascus. After years of blockade, they were forced to leave their city. But they managed to save their videos illustrating a unique experiment of cultural resistance under the bombs. This film, built between the past and the present, follows the story of three friends who met during the 2011 revolution and never gave up on their cultural resistance and peaceful struggle. Despite ceaseless bombing, they not only saved books from the rubble, but created a secret library, which quickly became a safe haven for peace, freedom and democracy: a special experience that they filmed and documented meticulously. Separated by war and exile, they are striving to reunite with each other. They reminisce on the past and tell us the extraordinary story of the library, based on dozens of hours of video archives. “A Library Under Bombs” is a story of hope and survival.

My Life as a Turkey

August 2011 •English

Naturalist Jim Hutto's remarkable experience of being imprinted on by group of wild turkey hatchlings, and raising them to adulthood and beyond, in the remote wilderness of northern Florida.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk - From Revolutionary to Statesman.

September 2005 •English

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey. His surname, Atatürk (meaning "Father of the Turks"), was granted to him in 1934 and forbidden to any other person by the Turkish parliament.

The Mystery of the Med Rings

Invalid date •French

Explore the mysterious giant rings of the Mediterranean, buried at a depth of 120m, with the world-famous Laurent Ballesta, world-renowned diver and his team, to understand the origin of these unique and unknown formations.

Haymatloz - Exil in der Türkei

October 2016 •German

″Haymatloz″ tells the stories of five German Jewish academics who emigrated to Turkey in the 1930s, to be welcomed with open arms. After 1933 a considerable number of German intellectuals emigrated to Turkey at the invitation of Atatürk and went on to definitively shape teaching and instruction in Turkish universities. Turkish-born filmmaker Önsöz accompanies the descendants of these German exiles and sheds light on a memorable piece of history whose meaning is still felt to this day, as these renowned Germans played a substantial role in the Europeanization of Turkey.

Evaporating Borders

March 2014 •English

Evaporating Borders is a poetically photographed and rendered film on tolerance and search for identity. Told through 5 vignettes portraying the lives of migrants on the island of Cyprus, it passionately weaves themes of displacement and belonging.

Like Stone Lions in the Gateway into Night

April 2012 •French

Between 1947 and 1951, more than 80 000 Greek men, women and children were deported to the isle of Makronissos (Greece) in reeducation camps created to ‘fight the spread of Communism’. Among those exiles were a number of writers and poets, including Yannis Ritsos and Tassos Livaditis. Despite the deprivation and torture, they managed to write poems which describe the struggle for survival in this world of internment. These texts, some of them buried in the camps, were later found. «Like Lions of stone at the gateway of night» blends these poetic writings with the reeducation propaganda speeches constantly piped through the camps’ loudspeakers. Long tracking shots take us on a trance-like journey through the camp ruins, interrupted along the way by segments from photographic archives. A cinematic essay, which revives the memory of forgotten ruins and a battle lost.

Les secrets du mont Olympe

February 2024 •French

Γάζωρος Σερρών

September 1974 •Greek

Make Love Not Porn

March 2024 •Greek

Against the stereotypes of the “ideal” woman and the symbols of Pornography, the women in the works of Greek comic artist Stavros Kioutsioukis preserve their personality: they are the girls next door who try and get their rights in Happiness and Love.

Gas Station or the Pigeons of Lahore

March 2024 •Greek

The parallel stories of four Pakistani immigrants in Greece become the trigger for the director to explore the story of his father, a worker in the Perama Shipyard. The background unfolds a most deadly shipwreck, Libyan immigrants found in limbo, as well as a (possibly racist) crime, which was committed during the shooting of this film.

Bread and a Blanket

October 2020 •Greek

On December 13 of 1943 the Nazi occupation army in Greece executed all the male population of the town of Kalavryta while burning it to the ground. Three men who witnessed these events as kids remember.

A Whistle comes from far away

January 2016 •English

For centuries the people of a village in the Blacksea coast of Turkey and the surrounding area have used whistling to communicate. The custom is a true form of language, but unfortunately was starting to die out. This documentary shows how “Uncle” Orhan, one of the more elderly villagers, has kept the age-old tradition alive by teaching the whistling language to local children.

THE EARTHQUAKE

February 2023 •Turkish

An experimental short film about the Earthquake, that is still ongoing in Turkey.

21st Century Âshikizm Art Movement

November 2022 •English

The sound of centuries-old Adhan in Turkey, the sound of centuries-old church bells and the polyphonic music of Europe echo in our memory. Our traditions and our future determine our present. In the present tense, the sounds of the war's sirens are mixed with the sound of Adhan and church bells. How can people hear themselves? How can humans exist?

My Child

June 2013 •Turkish

What happens when your child comes out to you? In this feature documentary, parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gender individuals in Turkey intimately share their experiences with the viewer, as they redefine what it means to be parents in this conservative society.

Prison or Exile

March 2021 •Turkish

Nursel Aydoğan, Fırat Anlı and Zülküf Karatekin are linked by political exile in Europe after threatened prison sentences in Turkey.

My Human Self

March 2017 •Greek

The inspiring story of the unemployed man who stood up against the Greek crisis and created a social kitchen for the homeless and refugees.

The Adventure

January 2013 •English

In 2011, as tens of thousands of migrants, Loss, and Madess Moussa arrived in Europe via Turkey. Required by EU law to remain in Greece, they only want one thing : to leave. Therefore earn the money needed to start is an obsession and all means are good. The film "The Adventure" follows the lives of these three Ivorians to Athens - their sense of enclosure, strategies to find money, failover illegally, attempts to start - and explores what is at stake, individually and collectively during migration: relations to other migrant communities, friendship, betrayal, solidarity, mafias and violence.

Fascism Inc.

April 2014 •Greek

Unknown short stories from the past, the present and the future of fascism and its relation to the economic interests of each era. We will travel from Mussolini’s Italy to Greece under the Nazi occupation, the civil war and the dictatorship; and from Hitler’s Germany to the modern European and Greek fascism.