"The Eleusinians" by Filippos Koutsaftis

On Sunday 12 May 2024 at 7.30 pm, FOUGARO ARTCENTER welcomes Filippos Koutsaftis for a screening of his film The Eleusinians. 

Twenty-three years ago, filmmaker Filippos Koutsaftis produced a milestone in Greek documentary with his Agelastos Petra [Mourning Rock]. Shot over a period of more than ten years, the film documented the fragments of the past that still stood in Elefsina: from the ancient relics that were present in the urban fabric and the timeless awe of the Mysteries to the Asia-Minor refugees who prevailed among the population and all others whose presence charged the place.

More than two decades later, Koutsaftis pays one more tribute to the region with The Eleusinians. The new documentary finds the filmmaker returning to the city to measure himself against its present time and get to know its anthropogeography anew. Typically, the film does not adhere to a conventional narrative; it looks more like a collage of diverse aesthetics, with a vocabulary forged out of archive material from Mourning Rock, interviews with local residents and footage from the events of “Eleusis – European Capital of Culture".