Giannis in the cities

Synopsis

1949. Giannis, the son of a partisan, is uprooted and sent to the state-run children's camps, where his beliefs are reshaped. As an adult, he sets out to find the father who has haunted him. The true story of the writer Yannis Atzakas.

Avec: Filippos Milikas, Marios Konstantinos Galetzas, Konstantinos Athanasakis. Agni Strumboulis, Eugenia Apostolou, Yannis Kritharas, Mina Chimonas, Manolis Mavromatakis, Simos Kakallas, Kostis Seiradakis, Evi Saoulidou, George Tsiapogas, Akyllas Karazisis, Katerina Alexandraki, Aglaia Pappa, Prometheus Nerattini, Vasiliki Skordali, Katia Leclerc O’Wallis, Katia Goulioni, Themis Panou, Yannis Kokkiasmeinos, Eudoxia Androulidaki, Kostas Filippoglou, Maria Kallimani, Andreas Marianos, Rafika Chawishe, Cleopatra Markou, Stelios Minas.

Brief Historical Information

During the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), the two opposing armies rounded up children and took them from their homes. The government forces took them to the Children’s Cities set up by the ‘Welfare Fund of the Northern Provinces of Greece under the high protection of the Queen Frederica’.

The Republican Army transported children outside the borders of the country to similar institutions in the Eastern countries. The children who were transferred were in fact both ‘rescued’ and ‘kidnapped’. They were rescued because they were protected from bombing, they were fed better than those left in their villages, and many of them were educated. But they were kidnapped in the sense that both camps wanted to educate them according to their own beliefs, to imprison them in their own world, to propagate their policies. 

Τrailer: ΘΟΛΟΣ ΒΥΘΟΣ | Επίσημο Trailer | Μια ταινία της Ελένης Αλεξανδράκη | Από 20 Φεβρουαρίου 2025

A few words about the director

Eleni Alexandrakis was born in 1957 in Athens. She studied film at the Sorbonne University, Paris I and at the National Film and TV School of England. She has written, directed and produced a few fiction films as well as documentaries among which: « A Drop in the Ocean» (fiction), « Easter is in the air» (documentary) « The Woman who longed for Home» (fiction) Angel and the Weightlifter (fiction). She has received many prizes in Greece and abroad. Her film « A Drop in the Ocean» was presented at the Forum of the Berlin Film Festival, in 1996, where Eleni got the Mionneto Film Award. The same film travelled in many festivals around the world where the main actress Amalia Moutoussi got a few awards. In 2005 « The Woman who Missed Home » got a Special Mention at the Rhodes Eco Film Festival and Nicos Papazoglou got a State Award for the Music of the Film. In 2009 « Angel and the Weightlifter » got a Gold Remi Award in WorldFest Houston. Her last feature length documentary is "Kostis Papagiorgis, the sweetest misanthrope" that got the Greek Association Critics’Awards at the 20th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

Plus d’info:

"Tholos Vythos" (Dark Bottom): A true story unveiled -

‘The Lost and Locked-away Years’ - tovima.com

What did the press said:

«Θολός Βυθός»: Η νέα ταινία της Ελένης Αλεξανδράκη από τις 20 Φεβρουαρίου στα σινεμά - ελculture - Θέατρο, Μουσική, Τέχνη & Πολιτισμός

Θολός Βυθός: Μια ταινία που "ξεθολώνει" τη μνήμη και το τραύμα του εμφυλίου - monopoli.gr

Θολός βυθός: Η πραγματική ιστορία του Γιάννη Ατζακά | Athens Voice

filmandtheater Θολός βυθός: η κριτική της ταινίας.

Θολός βυθός / Giannis in the cities / 2024 – Pomegranate Films 2.