“Giannis in the Cities” is a wounding and penetrating journey into “Childcare Cities” established during the Greek Civil War as told through a “survivor” author Yannis Atzakas. There are haunting similarities to the establishment of “residential schools” in Canada amounting to little more than kidnapping of Aboriginal children for purposes of assimilation into colonial correctness “managed” by the Canadian government and the Catholic and Protestant churches. Canada is currently experiencing a period of “truth and reconciliation” and settlement of legal suits filed by survivors.
In 1949 Giannis, the son of a Communist rebel fighter, is “accepted” (deported) by nationalist officials and placed into a series of Childcare Centres simply attributable to his father being a “rebel fighter”.
Supported by the Greek Orthodox church and American Greeks these “ragged and starved children” are “rescued” by the National Army and taken to a “safe haven where affection and care will bring back joy, health and spontaneous laughter”. These kidnapped children are being saved from “kidnapping” by the Communists who will convert them into their janissaries.
The children live in sparse dormitories, are regularly beaten and mercilessly propagandized. Unlike Canadian residential schools there is no mention of sexual abuse.
Perhaps the most telling scene is a visit by Queen Frederica of Hannover to the Childcare Centre Giannis is billeted to. One older boy states he resents kissing German ass and is mercilessly beaten as after all she is the sweet mother and queen.
The adults running the “system” are the beacon of its brutality and over a period of years only one kind “team leader” is encountered by Giannis. There is no liquidation of the children detainees other than the sanitization of their minds inclusive of humiliating their parents and hence their own self worth.
As you understand the direction of the film I will spare you from further painful details.
Giannis’ father presumed dead or missing is located in Varna, Bulgaria and Greek authorities force Giannis to decide whether he is the son of a guerilla or a child of the queen. You take it from here but I will leave you with the words of the author when he writes; “Such is the bottomless well of memory. Whenever you get caught up with some mental quest and you throw down the long rope a whole armful is drawn up from the depths and you don’t know what to do with it and you let it fall back into the dark water.”
The film deserves an international release. It is one of the most impactful films I have seen in years. A standing ovation for director Eleni Alexandrakis. Watch for it as Greece’s selection as best international film at the next Academy Awards.
Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/embed/-qBxlM5Rz3Y
RKS 2024 Film Rating 96/100.
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