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What we ask of a statue is that it doesn’t move

Daphné Hérétakis
Greece / France
31'

Nothing seems to be moving in Athens and the people are as still as statues. But elsewhere in the city, a caryatid escapes the museum and a small groupuscule demands the destruction of all antiquities. Perhaps filming is the only way to avoid turning into stone.

A girl loses herself in the history of tomorrow. Strange, playful, superstitious, and political, Daphné Hérétakis’s fictitious nonfiction captures the extremely contemporary state of mind of feeling overwhelmed, paralyzed, petrified in the face of everything that was, unable to be. Going round Athens, scrutinizing her own characters as well as passersbys, Hérétakis wonders if this immobility could just as well be a gesture for eternity—if you were a statue, how would you pose? And whether eternity might not be harmful to the present. The characters, the filmmaker’s collaborators in the making of this film, recite from the manifestos of Yorgos Vassiliou Makris, a Greek poet and provocateur who advocated for the demolition of the Parthenon right after WW2, seeing it as a past too heavy for the modern present. Hérétakis questions some Athenians dead-seriously: do you think the Parthenon should be torn down? No, they reply, but these are people who have never lived in a present without a past. (Călin Boto)

Thursday, September 25, 19:00

Cinemateca Eforie
Tickets

​​Daphné Hérétakis

​​Daphné Hérétakis studied at Paris 8 University, where she graduated with a Master’s degree in documentary filmmaking, and at Le Fresnoy – National Studio for Contemporary Art. Her short films tread a fine line between documentary and fiction, blending intimacy and the collective, and has been presented in many festivals such as IFFR, Hors Piste Pompidou, Visions du Réel, etc. Currently she’s developing her first feature film. She lives and works between France and Greece.

  • Technical sheet
  • WITH: Naya Ferentinou, Maria Mitsora, Grigoria Metheniti, Hélène Chalastanis, Sotiria Chrysovergi, Natacha Efstathiadi, Nikos Ioakeim, Katerina Konstandourou, Stavros Moiras, Takis Papanastasiou, Dimitris Petimezas, Stamatis Tsimbidis, Kyveli Zoi
  • CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robin Fresson, Daphné Hérétakis
  • SOUND: Nikole Assimosi, Dimitra Xeroutsikou, Konstantinos Samaras
  • COSTUMES: Christina Lardikou, Naomi Hérétakis
  • EDITING: Daphné Hérétakis, Konstantinos Samaras, Jean Costa Sound Editing
  • SOUND EDITING: Alexandre Hecker
  • MIXING: Simon Apostolou
  • FILM LABS: ANMAR, HIVENTY
  • COMPOSER: Kornilios Selamsis

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