Participation in the digital cultural program of the Greek Chairmanship

The DISFF participates in the digital cultural program of the Greek Chairmanship of the Council of Europe

with five short films

The films will be shown free of charge on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 November on the webpage of the Ministry of Culture htpps://digitalculture.gov.gr where the digital cultural program of the Greek Chairmanship is shown. They will be subtitled in English as they are (also) meant for international audiences, giving short film fans everywhere a good chance of savouring the modern greek production. The films proposed by the Festival belong to the thematic unit “INVESTING IN THE FUTURE – THE RIGHTS OF YOUNG PEOPLE” and deal with hot issues of modern Europe: minors and immigration, unescorted children, children – victims of poverty and bullying at school, climatic change, public health and restrictions in exercising human rights.

Societies in Motion

TIDES – A STORY TOLD BY THE SEA by Stavrianna Litsa, doc 11’ 2014
Little Sayed and his family arrive in Mytilini having had a really narrow escape. Before crossing the Aegean, their father gets lost in the crowds. The mother and children hear that their father has been imprisoned in Greece and put up a book with a view to saving him.

UMMI by Niko Avgoustidis, fiction 15’ 2015
Mohamed, a six year old refugee, finds himself alone in a crowded Aegean beach. He is hiding behind a rock, watching the tourists bathing and waiting for his mother to come back. He lost her in the sea and now he needs to find her again, in order to keep up with the great trip to the West. UMMI means “my mother” in Arabic.

FOURTH WALL by Dimitris Gkotsis, Doc, 10’ 2018
The fourth wall is the invisible aspect of the social fabric, which looks unchanged, with the only difference being the characteristics of people. People breeding in order to produce, surviving rather instinctively. The film is based on the notes of a ten-month trek.

SCHOOL PRAYER by Thanassis Neofotistos, Fiction, 17’ 2014
In the Junior High School that Dimitris attends, Vassilis with his friends, a group of bullies, make him feel terror. When Dimitris is told that he has to say the prayer, Vassilis haunts his thoughts. But what is to happen on the day when he has to face the whole school, and especially him?

THE SEED by Iphigenia Kotsoni, Fiction, 15΄, 2015
In a gloomy Athens of the future, Nala, a vegetable dealer, is located by the police and is convicted to five years of “rehab”. The story of this lonely “rebel” unfolds in a world where the cultivation of plants is illegal.

Greece, a member of the Council of Europe since August 1949, took over the Chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in the emergency circumstances imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The semester of the Greek Chairmanship also coincides with the 70th anniversary of an important historical event with a great impact on the evolution of the protection of human rights in Europe: the signing of the European Convention on Human Rights on 4 November 1950 in Rome. A treaty which has since become the constitutional “compass” in the European system of the protection of human rights.

The broader theme of the Chairmanship concerning human rights and humanistic values provides the focus for digital exhibitions and events.