DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Lesvia – by Tzeli Hadjidimitriou

Friday, March 22nd 2024, 9:45 p.m., Hall 1, director present, Q&A after the screening

Repetition: Saturday, March 23rd 2024, 9:45 p.m., Hall 2, director present, Q&A after the screening

-> Tickets here!

Since the 1970s, lesbians from around the world have been drawn to the island of Lesvos, birthplace of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho. When they find paradise in a local village and carve out their own lesbian community, tensions simmer with the local residents. With both groups claiming ownership of the Lesbian identity, filmmaker Tzeli Hadjidimitriou — a native and a lesbian herself — is caught in the middle and chronicles 40+ years of love, community, conflict, and what it means to feel accepted.

Tzeli Hadjidimitriou

Tzeli Hadjidimitriou was born and raised on the island of Lesvos, Greece and is an award-winning filmmaker, fine art photographer, and writer. Her photographs have been exhibited in solo and group shows in Australia, China, Italy, Turkey and Greece and have been published in ten books. After attending a series of seminars by Michelangelo Antonioni on the art of cinematography, she pursued further studies on the same field in Rome. She works as a consultant for television programs about Sappho and Lesvos. Her short films have been screened across the world and won several awards. Lesvia is her first full-length documentary.