Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival in Athens

16:30 – Off the Mark (114’)
(Germany–Norway, 2024)
Directed by Wera Uschakowa
Honorable Mention for the Environmental Award, 11th Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival

What the Norwegian government presents as an energy strategy translates, for the Indigenous Sámi people, into violent resource extraction and the violation of their ancestral lands. The film reveals the dark side of the so-called “Green Transition,” documenting activists’ fight against plastic pollution, while primarily focusing on the Sámi people’s desperate struggle for justice and survival.

18:30 – The Lost Season (63’)
(Iran, 2024)
Directed by Mehdi Ghanavati
Equality Award, 11th Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival

Seasonal dust has engulfed the village where teenage Kosar lives. Lake Hamoun has dried up, and the Sistan region near the Afghan border grows increasingly arid each year, as life seems to vanish from the land. Like all teenage girls in the area, Kosar is expected to marry according to tribal tradition. Yet she dreams of attending university. As drought intensifies and fine dust spreads across southeastern Iran, her dreams gradually fade into the dry horizon.

19:45 – A Day, 365 Hours (79’)
(Turkey–Croatia, 2023)
Directed by Eylem Kaftan
Director in attendance – Q&A to follow

First Prize at the 9th Turkish World Documentary Film Festival, Audience Award at the 10th Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival, and Work-in-Progress and Distribution Awards at the Antalya Film Forum 2023. Three young women are united by their shared experience of abuse. Their unexpected meeting forms a powerful bond that gives them the strength to confront their abusers in court and to help other young women seek justice.

16:30 – Lagunaria (85’)
(Italy, 2022)
Directed by Giovanni Pellegrini
“Cities of the World” Tribute Award, 10th Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival

What does it mean to live in a city that is slowly dying? Pellegrini’s experiential documentary is a cry of anguish for Venice, delivered through an original narrative form. Using a “voice from the future” reflecting on the past, the film captures everyday life in the lagoon, away from the spotlight. From devastating floods to the invasion of cruise ships, the director portrays a city undergoing violent transformation, inviting viewers to reflect on their responsibility toward history and the environment. 

18:15 – Sheep (40’)
(Belgium, 2024)
Directed by Ruud De Keyser
Director in attendance – Q&A to follow
Environmental Award, 11th Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival

For years, Belgium was considered safe—but the return of the wolf changes everything. This gripping documentary does something unique: it adopts the perspective of the prey. Through the eyes of the sheep, we experience fragile daily life and the invisible terror lurking in the dark. An atmospheric exploration of the age-old battle between the wild and the domesticated, as three shepherds struggle to protect their flock in a new and dangerous reality.

19:30 – Belle de Nuit – Grisélidis Réal, Autoportraits (73’)
(Belgium, 2016)
Directed by Marie-Eve de Grave
Equality Award, 5th Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival

Griselidis Real was a woman of many identities: writer, painter, and sex worker who transformed her own life into a manifesto of freedom. The film traces her uncompromising journey—from the prisons of Munich in the 1960s, where she began writing and painting, to her fierce activism in Paris and Geneva for sex workers’ rights. Through rare archival footage, interviews, and her own poetic texts, Réal fused art with marginalization and dignity with provocation. The title “Belle de Nuit” directly references—and plays on—Luis Bunuel’s film Belle de Jour, while also echoing the French euphemism for a sex worker.

16:30 – What Color is This World (60’)
(Bulgaria, 2019)
Directed by Ralitza Dimitrova
Equality Award, 6th Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival

A tender and poetic portrait of the gifted Bulgarian poet Danila Stoyanova, who passed away at just 23 years old. Although she did not become widely known during her lifetime, her poetry reached as far as the United States, and her verses still adorn walls in Leiden, the Netherlands, alongside works by world-renowned poets. Thirty-five years after her death, her friends revisit memories and engage in imagined conversations with her, reflecting on the meaning of their own lives and how the absence of one person can weigh more heavily than the presence of many.

18:00 – Turin Turin (46’)
(Italy–Austria, 2025)
Directed by Bernadette Weber

In the 1950s, Valentino and his friend Adriano made history as the first Italians to cycle around the world. Two years after Valentino’s death, his son discovers dusty diaries and rare photographs in the family home, bringing back to life an epic adventure filled with humor, friendship, and the irresistible charm of “slow” travel. A moving journey of memory that begins and ends in rainy Turin.

19:00 – Free Words: A Poet from Gaza (30’)
(Egypt–Turkey, 2024)
Directed by Abdullah Harun Ilhan
Director in attendance – Q&A to follow

Short Film Award at the Stockholm Film Festival; Best International Short Documentary and Audience Award at the 11th Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival; Audience Award at the Paphos International Film Festival 2025; Best Unscripted Short Film Award at the Hobnobben Film Festival 2025.

A documentary about Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha and his life in Gaza. The film follows his journey, portraying art as a form of resistance and hope, while documenting his experiences of oppression, including his temporary detention, release, and subsequent exile from Gaza.

20:15 – Daniel by Pavlos Vissariou – Tripoli Music School Concert

The award-winning short documentary Daniel focuses on the devastating impact of the extreme weather phenomenon “Daniel” on the local community of Metamorfosi in the Municipality of Palamas, at the point where five rivers converge.

The Tripoli Music School, under the guidance of professor and composer Giorgos Panagiotopoulos, used the film as a canvas to create and perform an original live musical composition.

Composition & Orchestration: Giorgos Panagiotopoulos
Musicians: Paraskevas Mourlas (violin), Georgia Mourla (violin), Davina Golegou (violin), Athanasios Manos (bouzouki), Paris Mourlas (bouzouki), Vasilis Dempegiotis (electric guitar), Nina Giannika (electric bass), Spyros Manos (daouli), and Kallisti Pantazi (drums).