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An Austrian documentarist asks how Greeks are faring
By Lina Giannarou
«Unemployment, poverty, riots, bankruptcy: In the eyes
of Europeans, Greece is collapsing. But, what it real life like out there,
in the olive groves, on the islands and in the tavernas, in Spring 2012?”
In early April, the award-winning Austrian author and
filmmaker Fabian Eder set off on a journey in a yacht to answer this
question and to explore the emotional and mental impact of five years of
recession on ordinary Greeks today. “How are they faring with the crisis?
What do the reforms means for them? What happened to good old Greece?” If
these are the questions in the trailer for “Greece in Bloom,” who wouldn’t
want to learn the answers in the film?
“Greece in Bloom” is already well under way, as Eder --
together with photography director Richard Wagner and photographer Andreas
Handl -- set off from Hania in Crete in early April and made his way to Ios
in the Cyclades, to Monemvasia and to Pyrgos in the Peloponnese, and then
to the Ionian island of Zakynthos and Ithaca, narrating his experiences
along the way. His journey will end in Messolonghi in western Greece.
The objective of “Greece in Bloom” is to put the
material Eder gathers on his journey together into a 50-minute documentary
for Austrian television, in order to depict a “timely portrait of Greece,
in contrast to the miserable daily economic reports, which shock us and
frighten us -- because hate is a very short distance away from fear.”
The idea for “Greece in Bloom” came quite unexpectedly
as Eder was having breakfast with his actress wife Katharina Stemberger.
Their conversation was revolving around the subject of how unfair the
criticism against Greece could be in the Austrian and other European press.
“The Greeks need to be given a voice, here and now,”
said Eder, and the idea was born.
While filming, Eder and his small crew are also keeping
a blog (griechenlandblueht.wordpress.com), featuring photographs and
comments of their experiences.
In Mani, they wrote about Stefanos, a 26-year-old
policeman they found playing traditional music on his guitar. “When I was
still posted in Athens, a 19-year-old Pakistani man asked me to arrest him
even though he had done nothing wrong, simply so he could get something to
eat,” Stefanos said. “Someone who reaches the point of stealing because of
hunger cannot be considered a thief.”
On Easter Sunday on April 15, Eder and his crew were in
Daimonia in Laconia in the Peloponnese. “These are people with hearts of
gold, who work hard and live in one of the most beautiful places. People
whose eyes sparkled with smiles until not so long ago. People of
irresistible beauty, who are so different from the front-page stories...
And there we were, three strange foreign from the North, sitting in the
middle, as though we always belonged there. True hospitality, the true spirit
of Christianity,” they wrote in their blog.
Greeks are not defined by the crisis, according to the
Austrian documentary makers. New terms other that debt haircut and gross
domestic product need to become re-associated with crisis-hit country. Its
culture, hospitality and Mediterranean lifestyle, even the departure of
winter, they say, are pointing to the exit from the crisis.
“Sailing in Greece reveals a country that is worth
exploring, a country that, in contrast to the daily media reports about it,
emanates hope.”
Through the blog, “Greece is Bloom” is already gaining
popularity as hundreds of visitors from all over the world log in every day
to read the crew’s comments.
“People need perspectives, ideals and a view of beauty.
Where else, but in the cradle of our civilization, the foundation of our
culture and our values, could we find these?,” Eder says in his online
introduction to “Greece in Bloom.”
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