Cinephiles are in for a treat this August as the Lemesos International Documentary Festival returns for its 18th edition. The annual Limassol festival kicks off on Tuesday at the Lanitis Carob Mill, with the screening of Apolonia, Apolonia, directed by Lea Glob, a co-production between Denmark, Poland and France.
The screening will begin at 8.30pm before the festival’s opening event takes place later on in the evening. In Apolonia, Apolonia, Glob pieces together a captivating portrait of young artist Apolonia Sokol, inviting viewers along on her quest for creative emancipation; an impressive film that covers 13 years in an anything-but-average life. The documentary has won 11 international awards including Best Feature Length Documentary (IDFA), Grand Prix Sofia IFF and Best Nordic Documentary at the Göteborg International Film Festival.
A live music event will follow at 10.30pm with Erika Soteri singing accompanied by musicians Soteris Yiatrou on drums, Max Daniels on bass and Pavlos Daniel Loukaides on keys. Also starting on Tuesday is a looped screening of The Broken Pitcher by Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Marina Christodoulidou and Peter Eramian at 7pm-8.10pm, 8.15pm-9.25pm and 9.30pm-10.40pm. The opening screening on Tuesday at 7pm will occur in the presence of the directors.
Tracing the effects of financialisation and austerity, the collaborative project The Broken Pitcher attends to a concrete case: a crucial meeting at a bank, negotiating the foreclosure of a family home in Larnaca, in 2019. Foreclosure is one of the austerity measures imposed on the Cyprus government by the Troika after the financial crisis in 2012.
Inspired by Abbas Kiarostami’s film First Case – Second Case (1979, Iran), the filmed re-enactment of the bank meeting is shown to people from various backgrounds who are asked to respond to the question: ‘In your opinion what should the bank employees do?’. The responses encompass perspectives of people from different interest groups in Cyprus and beyond, including housing rights activists in Barcelona, Berlin and Beirut, persons who are similarly affected by these policies, public figures, lawyers, economists and artists.
The Broken Pitcher is presented in response to more than 700 foreclosures expected to take place on the island over the summer of 2023, while also situating the case in relation to the colonial history of finance, debt and property. Seeking out potentials for changing the script of interacting with it, extensive research material make up a study space within the projection room, which is activated throughout the festival duration.
As the festival continues throughout the first week of August, daily screenings of feature-length documentaries will take place until August 8. Adding to the festival experience is a programme of parallel events in the heart of Limassol.
Lemesos International Documentary Festival
18th edition of the annual festival. August 1-8. Ceronia Hall – Lanitis Carob Mill, Limassol. lemesosdocs@gmail.com. www.filmfestival.com.cy