STAVROS PSYLLAKIS

Stavros Psyllakis’s unforgettable documentary was the first ever documentary to be honored by the Greek Film Academy. It draws inspiration from a sad story, a remnant of the civil war, that turns it into a monument of benevolence through its heroes' memories. — In Crete, part of the Democratic army survived even after the Civil War had ended. These outlaw radicals, hid for about 14 years near Chania, trying to regroup the illegal organizations. In 1962, six of them escaped through Italy to Tashkent. The three that survived compose the main characters of the documentary. This story’s equally vibrant and ellusive "protagonists" and "unsung", beyond ideologies, embody something extremely important: a deep devotion to humans and their dignity. — Best Documentary | Hellenic Film Academy Awards | 2010 Best Film | Halkida Greek Documentary Festival | 2009 Audience Award | Nicosia Documentary Festival | 2009

Stavros Psyllakis ("There Was no Other Way") in another shocking documentary. Is living with cancer an "experience of self-awareness in a mortgaged future"? Metaxa hospital, its doctors and staff guide us on a unique cinematic journey of life. — Starting with doctors and staff of the Metaxa anti-cancer hospital who suffer from cancer themselves, we follow this special group of people as they continue to work in the hospital. From the shock of the first time one hears it, to the experience of "... I learned to listen to time", cancer transforms from a death-threat to a life teacher for these people, not only adding years to their lives, but also adding Life to their years. — Second Best Film Award | Halkida Greek Documentary Festival | 2012

Olympia is three months pregnant when cancer knocks on her door. Faced with the dilemma of who to save first, herself or the fetus, she decides to save both. Another shocking example of Stavros Psyllakis' anthropocentric cinema, awarded by its audience at the 17th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival — Olympia, a 33-year old woman, is already three months pregnant when she finds out that she has lung cancer. After enough thought, she decides to keep the baby. Four months after giving birth to a healthy baby and while her cancer progresses fast, at the initiative of her doctor, Psyllakis and his colleagues will stay near the new mother and her family for four days, recording everything they can. — Audience Award | Thessaloniki Documentary Festival | 2015

"How can you fly without wings?"... is the protagonist's soliloquy in Stavros Psyllakis' new film. Gypsy stories of people who live, dream and hope. The film looks deeply into the eyes of the protagonists. — Athanasia, Theodoros, George and Chrysoula live and move around Zefyri, Menidi and the wider region. They no longer live in chattels and camps, but in a modern urban environment, each according to what they can afford. Their children and grandchildren are trying to educate themselves. Through small stories about their lives, each of them slowly unfolds his own special personality. They become people with dreams, hopes and disappointments, but also with an ancestry that has importance. — Second Prize for Social-Political Documentary | Kastellorizo Documentary Festival | 2017 Best Film | Ierapetra Documentary Fesstival | 2016

The cancers that oppress our lives, the things we lost, we forgot or we feel unable to enjoy anymore, in a daily life that crushes us and that we uncritically accept. Stavros Psyllakis treats Alekos Zoukas as a literary "hero" in an elegy on friendship. — Alekos Zoukas is a very lovable person, a reveler and at the same time deeply thinking and contemplative. A man once you meet, you cannot forget. In the film, the director's travels with Alekos Zoukas and his friends in Pirsogianni are alternated with Alekos' confessions about his experience with cancer. A eulogy to friendship from a sinful angel. — Best Documentary | Chania Film Festival | 2021 Best Director | Chalkida Greek Documentary Film Festival | 2021

Based on the unpublished material filmed in 2007 as part of the documentary "There Was No Other Way", the great Stavros Psyllakis turns a personal confession into an essay on historical memory and the value of struggle. — Yannis Lionakis, 87 years old, persecuted and rewarded guerilla, on a farewell trip to the place that defined his life, narrates his incredible survival story during 14 years (1948-1962), starting with the end of the Civil War in Crete. The body of the film is unpublished material shot in 2007 as part of the documentary "There Was No Other Way".

The first film of the important trilogy "Odes to Existence" by Stavros Psyllakis. Starting from childhood and youth memories, experiences and concerns, we follow the author's titanic existential struggle, in a highly penetrating portrait that escapes the narrow biographical boundaries. — Giorgos Maniatis (1939-2018), legionnaire in Algeria at the age of 18, writer and musician afterwards, defines himself as a "public danger". The film seeks the adventure of his soul, a consciousness on constant alert, incendiary and self-immolating. — Second Best Film | Chalkida Greek Documentary Film Festival | 2019