"The Eleusinians" by Filippos Koutsaftis

film screening
Sunday 12 May 2024 at 7.30 pm

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".

Filippos Koutsaftis

Born in Zagora, Volos on 1950, he studied mechanical engineering and then filmmaking in Athens. He has worked as director of photography for a large number of films for cinema and television.

He has also been active as lighting designer for theatrical, musical and dance productions. He has produced and directed the following documentary films with a focus on the questions of space, time, memory and history.


Filmography

SEMNON THEON                     Modest Goddesses            25 min              1987

MIA MERA ME TON MINOA     One Day with Minos           27 min              1990

AGELASTOS PETRA                Mourning Rock                   84 min              2000

TO.RA.KE.                                                                            24 min              2007

ARCADIA HAIRE                     Hail Arcadia                          87 min              2015

ZAKROS                                                                               97 min              2023

OI ELEFSINIOI                       The Eleusinians                     98 min              2024