Greek Film Festival: No rain on this parade

2022 Greek Film Festival launch began with the biopic Efthihia – Palace Astor Cinema. Photo: Con Deves

Melbourne.- The Greek Film Festival kicked off in Melbourne and Sydney on Thursday after a two-year hiatus brought on by Covid lockdowns. In Melbourne crowds braved torrential rain to fill the Astor in St. Kilda.

At the launch Neos Kosmos talked briefly to Leonidas Vlahakis a board director of the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM), the organisers of the festival.

“I am seriously excited to see the festival back,” Mr Vlahakis said.

The Greek Film Festival has been going for “27 years in its current form and 37 since it first began.”

Mr Vlahakis said the films in this festival were, “challenging, serious, and while there are a few comedies, Greece is a serious place to be in.”

“What I like about contemporary Greek cinema is the complexity and development of characters, there is no good guys and bad guys, it’s all about telling a great story.”

“It might be a story of redemption, or a story of family love, or a story about society, and societal conflict, or it might be a story of personal conflict,” Mr Vlahakis added.

The festival launched with Efthihia a 2019 biopic of Efthihia Papagiannopoulou, a lyricist who created a massive volume of popular songs, for Greek music greats like, Tsitsanis, Kaldaras, Hiotis, and Hadjidakis.

Directed by Angelos Frantzis, the film follows Efthihia as a refugee fleeing from Smyrna after the Turkish military and their paramilitaries, burned the city in 1922.

Ahead of her time, Efthihia was fiercely independent, and did not succumb to patriarchal bourgeoise morality. She was a gambler who often faced financial challenges and many composers and singers she wrote for–did not accredit her and presented Efthihia’s songs as theirs.

“Efthihia was one of Greece’s best songwriters and the film portrays an individual who is a free spirit, who is breathtakingly talented, and who did not care about conventional values, or people’s opinions about her lyrics, or her private life,” Mr Vlahakis said.

The Consul General of Greece in Victoria Emmanuel Kakavelakis spoke at the launch and emphasised the social, cultural and political importance of contemporary Greek cinema.

Jeanna Vithoulkas, also a GCM board director, launched the film and emphasised the importance of a film which is focused on a “woman’s life.”

“This festival begins with a film about a woman’s life, a woman who had an incredible impact on Greek music and was not recognised fully for her immense contribution,” Ms Vithoulkas said.

Ms Vithoulkas later talking to Neos Kosmos said that cinema is “important like all art forms, as cultural expression of Greek society.”

“Greek cinema has traditionally had a strong place in the consumption of Greek culture in the Diaspora demonstrated by the fact that Melbourne at one stage boasted five Greek cinemas.

“The attendance figures of the Greek Film Festival show the interest and appreciation of that art form has not waned in the community.

“Cinema is of course the most accessible art form in most societies and Greek filmmakers are an interesting cohort, look at, Angelopoulos, Lanthimos, Giannaris, Voulgaris- to name a few who allow us an illuminating glimpse into their representation of our world.”

The festival is national and runs from October 13 to 30 in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Canberra at selected Palace Cinemas.

For more information on the films, times and venues go to www.greekfilmfestival.com.au/melbourne/films