Never before has the genre of fantasy “invaded” so decisively in our lives. Small and big screens, books, comics, almost all art forms, are flooded with its heroes. So perhaps, it has finally become clear that the fantasy genre does not ignore reality. On the contrary, with its magic mirror, it discovers all its possibilities, today’s and tomorrow’s, in all their dimensions, conscious and unconscious. Psychoanalysis offered the most important tool for understanding the realm of fantasy, and Freud with the “Uncanny” paid his own tribute to the genre.
The tribute “Greek Fantasy Cinema” of the 11th AAGFF comes on time. Its 11 films cover almost all categories of the genre. The uncanny (“Apetaxamin” by Frieda Liappa, “Crystal Nights” by Tonia Marketaki, “Properties Οf 2” by Achilleas Kyriakidis), the magical (“A Dog's Dream” by Angelos Frantzis), allegory combined with dystopia (“No Sympathy for the Devil” by Dimitris Athanitis), science fiction (with the delirious parodies of “Dracula Of Exarcheia” by Nikos Zervos and of "The Attack Of The Giant Moussaka” by Panos Koutras), dangerous mind-games (“Eurydice BA 2037” by Nikos Nikolaidis, “In The Shadow Of Fear” by George Karypidis). Or even, the combination of fantasy and film noir (“The Night With Silena” by Dimitris Panagiotatos) or fantasy and psychological thriller (“History 52” by Alexis Alexiou).
There are other notable fantasy films. When all together, assembled in my documentary “Strangers In A Strange Land”, were presented at various festivals abroad, the surprise was the same everywhere: “But have there been so many good fantasy films in Greece?” Yes, they have been done, with a lot of love and little money, in difficult times, and for all typecasting and scorn for the genre.
Now some of these films are at your disposal. See them. Discover an unknown, different Greek cinema!
Curation, introduction: Dimitris Panagiotatos
Programming: Phaedra Papdopoulou
