At the same time with the Panorama tribute to the Greek Cinema of the 90s, three more films from the local contemporary production will be presented, from the new generation of Greek cinema. All three born in the 1980s, Zacharias Mavroeidis and Marina Danezi participate with their first feature films, the comedy “The Guide” and the documentary “Scavengers’ Union” respectively, while Yiorgos Fourtounis screens his short film “Face Down” that was recently awarded at the Drama film festival.

Mavroeidis’ and Danezi’s films constitute two totally different depictions of contemporary Athens. “The Guide” is the story of a young man who comes from Thessaloniki to Athens in order to start his new career as a guide of a group of Erasmus students to the architectural monuments of the city. We see Athens through the eyes of the Greek –but mainly the foreign- youth, who often know the city better and see things that its residents choose to ignore. In order to highlight the face of the city, the director focuses on its architecture and mainly on the contrast between the monumental past and the kitsch that prevails presently in the surrounding areas. Even though Athens constitutes the protagonist in numerous Greek films, Mavroeidis’ youthful comedy offers a new take on the reality of a city that constantly changes, without being merely the background, the scenery or the pretext for a story to be told. The identity of the young Greeks is interwoven with the image of the capital and its oddities, the chaotic city that oozes life. Thus, since Woody Allen hasn’t yet scheduled to shoot his next film in Athens, “The Guide” gives us an integral view of the Greek capital and an original approach, while steering away from banalities and remaining fresh and entertaining; its protagonists are its young residents, their stories and problems. Despite the low budget, the spontaneity and the enthusiasm of the cast and crew has resulted in an admirable outcome.

If Zacharias Mavroeidis focuses on the obvious face of the city, in the “Scavengers’ Union” Maria Danezi deals with a less known and secretive aspect which, however, becomes more and more apparent during recent times. If we take into account the tons of garbage that literally flooded Athens during the last month, but also the large number of immigrants who walk around the city pushing supermarket trolleys around in search of metal for sale, the film becomes even more relevant. The Scavengers’ Union was founded in 1992 in an effort from the part of its instigators to unite all these people who lived like ghosts and to face as one the challenge of survival. “I’ll pay attention to what you are throwing away, since you can find in nothing what you are looking for”: this line from a Stereo Nova track fully represents the philosophy of the scavengers’ profession. However, the main achievement of the Union has been the creation of their own Sunday bazaar that gets bigger every year. Their world constitutes a miniature of society: people with different backgrounds, education, religion and culture who coexist peacefully. The work they offer is undervalued: they recycle raw materials, objects that are thrown away in a hurry while they could be used again. Furthermore, the scavengers often save the cultural heritage of a place: manuscripts, works of art, vinyl records which, if it wasn’t for them, would end up in a landfill site. Marina Danezi approaches her subject with great sensitivity, thus offering an optimistic and humorous take on one of the most pressing issues of our days.

On the opposite side of the contemporary issues that the other two films deal with, but also at odds with the usual film genre that gets awarded at the Drama short film festival (usually favouring films focusing on topical social matters), is the short film “Face Down” by Yiorgos Fourtounis. It takes its subject from the novel under the same title by Konstantinos Theotokis and narrates the return of a man to his godforsaken village where he finds his wife with a newborn child that he hasn’t fathered. The only way he has left to restore order is crime. Theotokis’ novel has a distinct minimalism, since the same issue could have been developed much further, like a modern greek tragedy. The same road of deduction is followed by Fourtounis who holds only the necessary elements of narrative and dialogue. In this way, he focuses mostly on the return of the man to the village rather than on the violent crime itself and more on the silence than on the dialogue, with long atmospheric shots. The maturity that Fourtounis showcased in the adaptation of this classic novel was the main reason why his film was awarded.