SPOTLIGHT: ANGELIKI PAPOULIA

Green Sea – by Angeliki Antoniou

Anna has lost her memory, but she hasn’t forgotten how to cook. One night, she appears in a working-class neighborhood by a Greek harbor. There, she meets the unpredictable loner Roulade and finds work and hospitality at his humble tavern. In the kitchen, amidst the scents of spices and old forgotten recipes, she struggles to reconstruct her past. Her simple but delicious food awakens memories for the regulars, who in turn help her reconnect with herself. The story takes an unexpected turn, when Roula suddenly stumbles upon the “Green Sea” and discovers Anna’s true identity.

Angeliki Antoniou

Angeliki Antoniou is a Greek-German film director, screenwriter and producer. She studied architecture in Greece and she is a graduate of the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. She has directed feature films and documentaries which have screened and been awarded in prestigious international festivals (Locarno, Berlinale, Göteborg, Montreal, Palm Springs, Moscow, Thessaloniki etc.), and have been distributed worldwide. Her first full-length feature film Donusa (1992), competed and won the A’ Prix de la Jeunesse (First Youth Award) at the Locarno Film Festival 1992. Her next film, Nights, Gambled Away (1997), participated in the Berlin Film Festival and competed in the Thessaloniki Film Festival, winning awards for directing, best film, screenplay, and best actress. One of the most distinguished and critically acclaimed, the award-winning Eduart (2007) (based upon true events), participated in more than 50 international festivals, received 2006 the State Quality Awards in Thessaloniki for best film, directing, screenplay, music, sound, set design, and the Fipresci Award. The film represented Greece for the 2008 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Her documentary, The Unknown Athenians (2020), won the IRIS Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary in 2021. Her film Green Sea (2020) won awards and participated in major festivals, such as Nashville, Rhode Island, Sydney, Hof, Hiroshima, Efebo d’Oro, and others. On December 2022, the film premiered on Netflix Europe. Antoniou has taught directing at the Thessaloniki Film School, undertakes dramaturgy, runs workshops, and master classes in Europe for young filmmakers. She has been a member of the Hamburg Film Center and a member of international film festival committees. She is a member of the European Film Academy and a founding member of the Greek Film Academy. She lives in Athens and Berlin. Her independent production company, Angeliki Film Produktion, is based in Berlin.

 

Angeliki Papoulia was born in Athens, Greece. She is an actress and theater director. She is internationally acclaimed for her starring roles in Yorgos Lanthimos’ films Dogtooth – which was nominated for an Oscar – Alps, and the director’s first English-speaking full-length film The Lobster, which was nominated for an Oscar award as well. Her career in cinema also includes many other roles in full-length films, such as Human Flowers of Flesh by Helena Wittmann, To a Land Unknown by Mahdi Fleifel, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea by Syllas Tzoumerkas and Arcadia by Yorgos Zois, among others. She has been a jury member at the international film festivals of Locarno, Sarajevo, Istanbul, Karlovy Vary and also at the Berlinale. In 2004, she co-founded the Blitz Theatre Group. She has written, co-directed and acted in all the group’s performances. The group has presented its theatrical projects in various European festivals and theaters. Lately, she has co-directed theatrical plays at Luzerner Theater and Schauspielhaus Zürich, in Switzerland.