Greek filmmaker Elina Psykou (“Stray Bodies”) has attached a trio of Hellenic heavyweights to the cast of “Patrimonial Fears and Other Illusions,” which will head to the Venice Gap-Financing Market taking place from Sept. 4 – 6.
A portrait of intergenerational trauma set against a famous magician’s visit to Athens, the film has bolstered its cast with Greek screen legend Xenia Kalogeropoulou (“Before Midnight”), whose career has spanned six decades; Locarno best actor winner Antonis Kafetzopoulos (“Plato’s Academy”); and Hellenic Film Academy Award winner Makis Papadimitriou (“Suntan,” “Chevalier”).
Written and directed by Psykou, “Patrimonial Fears and Other Illusions” follows three women from the same family who finally decide to confront their fears. An elderly retiree, who’s just killed her abusive husband, dreams of taking a plane for the first time in her life to fly away to Hawaii. A one-eyed performer returns to her Gorilla Girl persona while struggling to remember how she lost her eye. And a Bulgarian immigrant flees her marriage in search of an abortion.
As the magician prepares an elaborate feat that will make the Acropolis seemingly vanish, the three women will likewise attempt the impossible, daring to discover surreal ways to make the family’s dark past disappear before it can haunt the next generation.
“‘Patrimonial Fears and Other Illusions’ is a story about intergenerational trauma and how it manifests through fears, lies and violence,” said Psykou. “It’s about the small, everyday fears and lies, specifically tailored to our personalities, that hinder direct and honest communication with our loved ones, make connecting with people and forming emotional bonds harder and stand in the way of our freedom.
“Instead, they create a parallel reality, an illusion that restricts and suffocates us, keeping us captive,” she added.
“Patrimonial Fears and Other Illusions” is a co-production between Greece (Jungle Films, Homemade Films, StudioBauhaus), the Netherlands (Studio Ruba) and Cyprus (Bark Like a Cat Films), with the support of Eurimages, Creative Europe MEDIA, the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center (EKKOMED), the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), the Netherlands Film Fund and the Deputy Ministry of Culture in Cyprus (SEKIN).
Psykou’s last film, “Stray Bodies,” a documentary that follows women forced to cross E.U. borders to access medical procedures outlawed in their own countries, premiered at CPH:DOX in 2023. Her sophomore feature, “Son of Sofia,” won the best international narrative award at Tribeca in 2017.
With “Patrimonial Fears,” she might be embarking on her most personal journey yet.
“This film is clearly influenced by my dual identity as a mother and daughter, as well as the sociopolitical context of the past few years,” she said. “How do you heal your trauma in order to avoid transferring it to the next generation? How do you raise children without fear, lies and violence? And how do you avoid teaching them to be afraid? How do you raise a child without cultivating fear of the unknown, fear of otherness, failure, abandonment, change, separation and death?
“On the other hand, how can you resist the culture of fear that surrounds us in the era of the ongoing crisis? The fear of unemployment, hunger, natural disasters, climate change, wars and epidemics? The fear of violence? The fear of foreigners, refugees or immigrants?” she continued. “In my mind the answer is clear: believe in human nature, in its sincerity and immediacy, in its bare naked truth, even if it shocks you, because it can also build trustworthy relationships and give meaning to the concept of freedom.”
While putting one’s faith in human nature might be difficult “at a time when post-truth, post-facts, fake news and deepfakes dominate,” the director added, the film “sheds light on the gray areas in which you cannot easily discern the boundaries between truth, lies and illusion, and calls on its characters to remember, to overcome their own fears and to speak out for communal change as active members of society.
“I hope the film invites a moment of reflection for the audience, as much as for myself,” she said. “Perhaps, in recognizing the weight we carry, we may begin to loosen its hold and imagine what it might mean to leave behind a different legacy, to make our own Acropolises vanish by our own hands.”
Pictured (l. to r.): Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Antonis Kafetzopoulos, Makis Papadimitriou
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