ELENI ALEXANDRAKI
She was born in Athens in 1957. She studied film at the University of Sorbonne, Paris 1, and at the National Film and TV School in England. A director, screenwriter, and producer of her films, she has created short films, feature films, and documentaries, as she believes there is no fundamental difference between the two genres. Her works have been honored with numerous awards in Greece and abroad at major international festivals. She is also an author and organizes a small film festival every summer on the island of Nisyros.
During the beta version of Gr2me we will show only the first 6-8 minutes of a feature film. The entire movie will be available via VoD after the official launch of the site.
On a full moon night a married woman, Anna, runs away from the island where she lives with her older husband, to return to her native land, the island across the sea. A young shepherd, Mathios, helps her escape on a small rowboat. During their journey, that lasts one night, Mathios who is secretly in love with her, hopes that they will stay together forever. Anna offers her dress for a sail. A latent desire lies in her soul too, but the real reason for her escape is the nostalgia for her home land. The anguish of her husband in love who runs after her, the small world of the island that never misses the chance to get involved, and scenes of Anna’s past, intermingle with the present action transforming this lilliputian journey into a journey of life…
THE WOMAN WHO MISSED HOME , is a free adaptation of a the short story I NOSTALGOS by Alexandros Papadiamandis.The script was written by Eleni Alexandrakis, with advisory help from the writer Kostis Papagiorgis. The original story, has been enriched with fragments of other short stories by Papadiamandis, and brought to our times. The film was shot in Nisyros and Gyali, two small islands of the Dodekanese . The film is the result of a total co-operation, of the people of the island and cinema professionals. Actors and Nisyrian amateurs use the distinct local dialect while the narrators, played by children of the island, use the scholarly Papadiamandis’ s language..
Papadiamandis (end of 19th beginning of 20th century), probably the greatest greek writer, observed the human condition writing mainly short stories concerning the small world of his native island, Skiathos. As Zisimos Lorentzatos said, the writers miraculous achievement is that he “ascended up to the people”.
This independent, low budget, hand made movie, is based on the short story I NOSTALGOS literaly like on a musical piece. Through out the process of the making of the film we tried to seek inside todays daily island life for the remains of Papadiamandis’s spirit. We came upon a stream of life.
CAST
Olia Lazaridou
Giorgos Tsouvaris
Spyros Stavrinidis
Maria Mina
CREDITS
DIRECTOR: Eleni Alexandraki
SCREENPLAY: Eleni Alexandraki
(based on a story by Alexandros Papadiamantis)
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vassilis Kapsouros,
Christos Asimakopoulos
EDITING: Takis Yannopoulos
MUSIC: Nikos Papazoglou
SETS: Kalliopi Kopanitsa
COSTUMES: Kalliopi Kopanitsa
SOUND: Marinos Athanassopoulos
AWARDS
REVIEWS
The film “The Woman who Missed Home” describes the pain of longing, a tender search for a hug by the all-absorbed Anna – played by Olia Lazaridou, with tenderness and playfulness, while her linen dress is the sail on the improvised mast of escape. And the end comes to seal, sweetly-sweetly, this escape, with the hug he always sought, and had kept the memory alive, like the voice of Papadiamantis that sounds like music…
Eleni Bistika – KATHIMERINI