The 67th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which will be held between 5-15 November this year, will pay tribute to two famous directors: Oliver Laxe and Nikos Grammatiko. Galician director, screenwriter and actor Oliver Laxe of the movie Sirat, which was highly appreciated by the audience and critics, is among the guests of honor of the festival.
Laxe will explain his artistic journey and the creation process of his films.” “I am very happy to participate this year in the Thessaloniki Film Festival, one of the leading festivals in Europe, which has supported my work since my first films,” says Laxe. Art director Orestis Andreadakis said, "We will go on a journey in the desert, which has served as an iconic location for his films, inspired by his early works, and symbolizes inner discovery, human survival and the unknown." He also announced that the festival will hold a mass screening titled "Welcome to the Desert." Oliver Laxe's films Mimosas and Sirat will be screened in this section.
“WELCOME TO THE DESERT” SECTION: MASS SHOWING
This section will include classic works of respected directors as well as cinema masterpieces dating from the 1930s to the present day. The Naked Island (Kaneta Shindo, 1962/ Japan), Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962/UK), Simon of the Desert (Luis Buñuel, 1965/ Mexico), Easy Rider (Dennis Hooper, 1969/ USA), Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1970/Britain - Australia-USA), Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog, 1971/ West Germany), Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971/ Australia), Stalker (Andrei Tarkovski, 1979/ Soviet Union), Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999/ France/ Highway (Sergei Dvortsevoy, 1999/ Kazakhstan), Mimosas (Oliver Laxe, 2016/ Spain-Morocco-France-Qatar), 143 Rue de désert (Hasan Ferhani, 2019/ Algeria-France- Qatar), Sirat (Oliver Laxe, 2025/ Spain-France).
GOLDEN ALEXANDER HONORARY AWARD TO NIKOS GRAMMATIKOS
The event will present the Golden Alexander Honorary Award to Nikos Grammatikos, one of the most loved and admired directors of Greek cinema, and will screen his feature and short films. Special screenings of Truants and Night Flowers, one of the most iconic films of contemporary Greek cinema and celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, will be presented to the audience.
"Thank you very much, it is a great honor. My first film and all of my films were shown at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, I won my first award at this festival and the audience always embraced me there," said Grammatikos, explaining his special relationship with the festival. "His films are gritty, full of existential reality and deeply concerned with the human condition, the light and darkness within us, the things that bind us to others and divide us. Together with Truants, The King, A Time to Kill, he reflects our relationships, an entire generation and an entire country over the last 30 years. It is rare for a filmmaker to leave such a strong mark not only on Greek cinema but on our collective memory," says Orestis Andradakis, artistic director of the festival.
Nikos Grammatikos' poetic yet realistic films will draw us into worlds full of meaningful moments, friendships, memories and disappointments. Their unconventional but fragile characters come into conflict with both their environment and their own selves as they navigate the impasse in their lives.
Films that will be screened: U-Turn (1991), A Time to Kill (1993), Truants (1996), Night Flowers (1999), King (2002), The Wake (2005), Medea… Louder Than My Thoughts (2014).
His short films From Far Away (1987), Danger Zone (1988), Abacus (1989) and Chaos (1994) are also included in the mass screening.
