“Mother of the Station” is a Greek documentary presenting a historical and very pictorial story about two waves of Greek emigration to Germany with a focus on Greek women in two waves one in 1960-1973 and another following the Greek economic crisis of 2010. In both waves there is pain and hardship on Greek families particularly amongst children of these Greek emigrants to Germany. Sort of a “Twilight Zone” being caught between two cultures and languages but some of these emigrants feeling neither Greek nor German particularly in the first wave. While the first wave of Greek women emigrating it was poverty in the rural areas, particularly in Northern Greece that caused a huge wave. Employment contracts were signed in Greece and at the employer’s expense Greek women and their families ended up in Germany but not the entire family at once. Some left families and children behind to be minded by grandparents. The newer wave saw many professionals emigrating.
As is the story of many immigrants the plan was stay of a relatively short time and return to Greece with a nest egg but once children were immersed in the German educational system there was less incentive to return to Greece.
Most of the dialogue is from emigrants and their children in the first wave and one learns the challenges and in some causes trauma of having to leave behind family and establish a life in Germany. This is the forté of the documentary with these personal stories brought into the context of comments from a historian and a economist but it is the personal stories one will remember.
Since the end of WW II over three million Greeks emigrated from Greece.
You can watch the trailer here https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/movie-tdf/movie/14862
The documentary premiered at the 25th Thessaloniki International Film Festival last year and is directed by Kostula Tomadaki.
RKS 2023 Film Rating 81/100.
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