05/11/2015 - Out of the 12 proposals submitted, four have been selected to share the cumulative fund of €500,000 handed out by the joint financing initiative

Four out of 12 submitted projects have been selected to share the cumulative fund of €500,000 handed out by the joint funding initiative organised by the Greek Film Centre and France’s CNC (National Centre of Cinema). The announcement comes at a tough time for Greek cinema, with state subsidies poised to take a tumble in the coming years.

Lefteris Haritos’ debut feature, Dolphin Man (L’Homme Dauphin), will be a documentary focusing on the life and work of Jacques Mayol, the record-breaking diver who inspired Luc Besson’s The Big Blue. The project will be financed by Greece and France at a ratio of 70.1% to 29.9%.

Stella Theodoraki’s fourth fiction feature, Free Subject (Sujet Libre), will follow a Fine Arts professor who asks her students to work on a subject of their choice, inspired by the crisis-riddled society in which they’ll have to live and create. The tables are turned when one of her students bases his project on her and the private information he obtains when he finds her missing mobile phone. The project’s financing will be provided by Greece and France at a ratio of 80% to 20%. 

Etienne Kallos will make the leap from his well-travelled and multi-award-winning shorts to his debut feature with The Harvesters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Etienne Kallos
film profile], the story of a young Afrikaner orphan who has been picked up off the streets to live on his adoptive parents’ farm, but he will have to struggle with feelings of isolation and alienation in order to find his place in a community obsessed with ancestry and familial bonds. The film will be co-financed by France (56%), Greece (29%) and South Africa (15%).

Iranian-born director Siamak Etemadi will also be making his feature debut with Pari [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Siamak Etemadi
film profile], the story of an Iranian woman in her 40s, who reaches Athens along with her much older husband in order to visit their son. When he doesn’t show up to meet them at the airport and it turns out he has disappeared, she embarks on a perilous journey to find her missing son, a feat that will see her at odds with her husband. The film will be funded by France (52.57%) and Greece (47.43%).