Focus On The Greek Diaspora

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 20, 2008

Scott Murray

Focus On The Greek Diaspora

Australian Centre for the Moving Image, until next Sunday.

European emigration is one of the formative stories of the 20th century and the unifying theme of Focus on the Greek Diaspora, a wide-ranging festival showcasing 10 features, three shorts and a free panel discussion (tonight, 5.30pm).

Set in 1922, Pantelis Voulgaris' Brides (2004) is the epic story of Greek and Ukrainian women being sent to America by ship as mail-order brides. Joining them on board is a disillusioned American war photographer, Norman (Damien Lewis). He falls in love with one of the reluctant "brides", Niki (Victoria Haralabidou, a Greek actress who lives in Sydney).

For anyone who has experienced any form of diaspora, this will be an extremely powerful and resonant experience. For others, the film's plastic period reconstruction will lessen the impact. One also has to question the film's unsympathetic view of the would-be husbands. Greek families depended on what these lonely men earned, and abandoning their jobs to return home to find a bride was inconceivable. They were victims, too.

If Brides is about the pain of leaving home, Sotiris Goritsas' From the Snow (1993, above) is about the difficulty of returning. Refugees from the Greek minority of Northern Epirus in Albania bravely venture to their ancestral homeland in hope of a better life, only to discover they are unwanted. This angry film has won several festival awards and is disturbing viewing.

Other highlights include Mirupafshim (an encounter between a Greek man and Albanian immigrants) and Marseilles, A Greek Profile, about a Greek-French woman living in the port city.

Focus on the Greek Diaspora was arranged in conjunction with the film festival of Thessaloniki, a sister city to Melbourne. It is a wonderful gift.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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