The second annual Vancouver Greek Film Festival (VGFF) runs from 1-4 June 2023. It presents an eclectic offering of contemporary and classic Greek cinema. This year the Festival kicks off a calendar of events organized by The Hellenic Canadian Congress of British Columbia during Greek Heritage Month which culminates in “Greek Day on Broadway” one of Vancouver’s most famous street festivals on June 25th.
Greek film has made great strides in the last two decades emerging from slapstick comedy to films dealing with contemporary social issues not afraid to take aim at Greek politics, religion and governmental bureaucracy.
Christos Dikeakos a visual artist and co-founder of the VGFF states, “The programme presents a myriad of stories and experiences about the human condition, offering insight into the minds of Greek filmmakers that is at once intimate and universal.”
“Days and Nights of Demetra K” is a documentary filmed over a period of ten years. Demetra K was the proprietor of Athens’s oldest bordello in the suburb of Glyfada.
The days are just like most of our days with shopping, chatting, watching television, arguing with family members, maintaining friendships and worrying about the economy. And as the Greek economy hit the skids so did the bordellos so even the nights of Demetra are no more exciting than her days. So uneventful and lacking in revenue she closes the bordello but continues to advocate for sex workers in her position of head of the Sex Worker’s Union of Greece where she abhors sex trafficking and the Greek macho attitude of sex without condoms. Demetra is a treasure trove of Athenian bordello history remarking that it was the Greek monarchy that licensed her bordello yet in modern times there is no end of trouble with the Greek government. But even in these earlier times there was abuse and murder amongst the bordello girls.
Winner of the Best Documentary at the 2022 Hellenic Film Academy Awards.
Directed by Eva Stefani.
It screens 2June2023.
RKS 2023 Film Rating 76/100.
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