Returning to the fair city of film for it fourth year, the Dublin Greek Film Festival 2018 will present features, documentaries and short films from Greece along with special events at the Chester Beatty, The New Theatre and The Sugar Club this week.
The Dublin Greek Film Festival 2018 aims to promote Greek culture through a variety of films and events and show links between Ireland and Greece, making it one of the annual highlights in the Dublin film calendars many celebrations of international culture. From October 18th – 21st, they festival will paint a rounded picture of Greek culture through different film genres, musical performances and the hosting of the festival itself.
Having launched last weekend with a screening of Paul Duane’s While You Live, Shine, the full festival kicks off this Thursday with a free selection of shorts at the Chester Beatty library. As with previous years, the library will share hosting duties with The New Theatre in Temple Bar, with the festival to close on Sunday at the Sugar Club, an event set to include a concert by Greek musicians Kourelou.
Check out the full schedule for the festival below (plot synopsis courtesy of the Dublin Greek Film Festival :
Screening of Shorts – Chester Beatty, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2, Thurs Oct 18, 1pm
Drama International Short Film Festival is Greece’s leading short film festival and the annual meeting place for filmmakers and industry professionals. Based in the city of Drama the festival is the main Greek and South-Eastern European gateway to the world’s most prestigious short film awards, and nominated filmmakers qualify for the European Film Awards.
For more than 17 years the awarded short films of the Drama International Short Film Festival have been travelling to meet the cinephile audience in different cities in Greece and abroad. Germany, Egypt, Cyprus, Serbia, Italy together with more than 60 Greek cities have been few of the destinations that welcomed this initiative. The Short Film Festival now add Ireland as a new destination to their film journey, with 5 shorts set to screen at the Chester Beatty.
Polyxeni – The New Theatre, 43 Essex St E, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Fri Oct 19, 7pm
In 1955 a couple of prominent Greek Istanbulites adopt an orphan Greek girl from the town of their origin. They offer her a powerful family name and ensure her devotion. Twelve-year-old Polyxeni is separated from her younger brother. She embarks on a new life and a future that looks bright. She receives an education, comes of age and falls in love. She has a lust for life, while unsuspicious of the devious plan of annihilation that others are weaving behind her back, targeting her large inheritance. This film is an official contender for the Academy Awards in the best foreign-language category for 2019
Up to the Last Drop – The Secret Water War in Europe – The New Theatre, 43 Essex St E, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Sat Oct 20, 5.30pm
As Europe is going through a crisis that is not solely economical but also a crisis of moral values, millions of European citizens demand a response to a crucial question: is water for the European Union a commercial product or a human right? Until today, the European Institutions have not given a clear answer. The EU has still to recognize water as a human right, as the UN did in 2010.
At the same time, cities, regions and countries all around the world are increasingly rejecting the water privatization model they had adopted for years and are remunicipalizing services in order to take back public control over water and sanitation management. In Europe, the majority of the cases have been recorded in France, home of the most powerful and influential private water multinational companies of the planet. Nine cases have been recorded in Germany.
Although Berlin and Paris have recently taken back public control over their water services, the financial and political European elites are demanding from Greece, Portugal and Ireland to privatize their public water systems. Provisions about water can be found in every M.o.U, Greece, Ireland and Portugal have signed with the Troika and it’s a common stipulation provided in every bailout agreement signed between the debt-ridden countries and their lenders.
Up To The Last Drop follows the money and the corporate interests during a period of four years in thirteen cities of six EU countries. It’s a documentary film about water that reflects contemporary European values and the quality of the current European democracy.
The Last Note – The New Theatre, 43 Essex St E, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Sat Oct 20, 7pm
Napoleon Soukatzidis (Andreas Konstantinou) is an inmate of the Nazi’s Chaidari concentration camp, and interpreter for its ‘Kommondant’, Karl Fischer (André Hennicke). When news reaches Chaidari that a Greek resistance ambush in Laconia claimed the life of a high-ranking German official and his escorts, Fischer orders 200 inmates be executed. One of those inmates is Soukatzidis.
But then, on Labour Day, 1944, Fischer offers Soukatzidis both an opportunity and a conundrum: he can nominate another prisoner to take his place, and thus be spared death. Inspired by true events.
Happy Birthday + Kourelou concert – The Sugar Club, 8 Leeson Street Lower, Dublin 2, Sun October 21; Doors: 4pm, Event begins: 4.30pm, Concert: 6.30pm
When George, a Greek police officer, sees his teenage daughter Margarita, a member of the anti-authoritarian resistance movement, facing him through the teargas, he and his wife Sofia decide that father and daughter should go to their country house for a few days in an attempt to protect their daughter and to salvage whatever might be left from their relationship.
The Dublin Greek Film Festival 2018 is supported by Dublin City Council, Chester Beatty, Aegean Airlines, Embassy of Greece to Ireland, Gaia Wines, Yeeros, 103.2 Dublin City FM, Film Ireland, Cat Media, and the Drama International Film Festival.