Christopher Vourlias It had been nearly three decades since a film was last screened in Ciné Apollon, an open-air theater in the resort town of Edipsos on the north shore of the Greek island of Evia.
But the arrival of several hundred moviegoers on June 15 for a screening of French filmmaker Coline Serreau’s “La Belle Verte” (The Green Planet) offered a much-needed sense of rebirth: for the cinema, and for an island that was devastated by catastrophic wildfires last summer.As part of wide-ranging efforts to revitalize struggling communities and give a boost to the local economy, the organizers of the Thessaloniki Film Festival this year launched the Evia Film Project, a five-day event that underscores the perils of climate change and offers the film industry a chance to explore the possibilities of green film production.
When the audience gathered at the Apollon for the opening of the festival, which ran June 15 – 19, it raised hopes as well that the ravaged island is ready to turn a new page.Addressing a crowd of several hundred on opening night, Thessaloniki festival director Orestis Andreadakis recalled the devastation wrought by last summer’s fires, a tragedy that compelled festival leadership to spring into action. “The images that we saw last year really overwhelmed us, and we felt the obligation to come and plant a seed of culture here,” he said.
Insisting that “Evia can be reborn,” Andreadakis added: “Your strength is our strength, and your love for this land is our love as well.”The Evia Film Project was organized under the framework of Fotodotes, a specially created developmental project for the reconstruction and restoration of Evia under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
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