by FilmInk Staff
Land, Legacy & Loss – Greek Cinema and the Environment
Tuesday 29 April, 6.30pm
The Capitol, 113 Swanston Street, Melbourne
RMIT’s The Best Films You’ve Never Seen series presents ‘Land, Legacy & Loss: Contemporary Greek Cinema and Environmental Crisis’, a very special screening event exploring contemporary Greek cinema’s engagement with environmental crisis and the tensions between tradition and progress.
Giorgis Grigorakis’ neo-Western Digger (2020) takes us deep into the forests of Northern Greece, where a solitary farmer named Nikitas is fighting an industrial mining corporation causing environmental destruction as it encroaches on his property. In the midst of this battle, Nikitas’ estranged son returns after 20 years. Digger was winner of the Berlinale’s CICAE Art Cinema Award in 2020 and, in the same year, featured in the Melbourne International Film Festival program that shifted online. This screening will be an opportunity for film lovers and Hellenophiles to see this work on the big screen, where Giorgos Karvelas’ stunning and immersive cinematography shines.
Screening alongside Grigorakis’ feature is Lia Tsaltis’ 2018 short The Forest, which invites us to experience a dystopian future where nature no longer exists. In this surreal take on environmental crisis, tourists visit a theme park to witness the last remaining species of plant and bird life.
Curated by RMIT’s Alexia Kannas in collaboration with Athens-based curator and scholar Geli Mademli (Thessaloniki Film Festival; Syros Film Festival), this unique event explores how contemporary Greek cinema negotiates the tension between economic growth and environmental preservation, and engages with the pressures exerted by resource extraction, gentrification and tourism.
Tickets: https://cvent.me/lrNVoP?RefId=LL%26L+Internal
Presented by RMIT Culture, in partnership with RMIT Cinema Studies, and supported by Neos Kosmos.
Digger
Language: Greek (English subtitles)
Country: Greece /France
Year: 2020
Duration: 101 mins
Format: DCP
The Forest
Language: Greek (English subtitles)
Country: Greece
Year: 2018
Duration: 18 mins
Format: DCP
Image credit: Film Still from Digger, courtesy The Match Factory.
