This year’s seventh Festival could not but be dedicated to the Asia Minor Catastrophe, which took place 100 years ago. And this place could not fail to remember Asia Minor, as Smyrna, the ruler of Ionia, was for years a model of cultural and social development for the Castellorisians. The artistic director of the now iconic, for the island and not only, Castellorizo Festival, Ms. Eleni Sarioglou, talks to grtraveller about this year’s event and invites us to combine our love for culture and the arts with a visit to the “Wonderland”, as she calls the island.
The Castellorizo Documentary Festival comes to life for the 7th year on the island. What is this year’s theme and what new things will visitors enjoy?
We are very happy that this year, despite the difficulties that are happening on a socio-political level all around us, we will once again experience a celebration of Art and Culture in the easternmost part of our country. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. Perhaps the word anniversary sounds ironic, as it always brings to mind celebration and joy. Of course, as a Politissa and as a historian I know very well that this was not the only situation at that fateful time, in September 1922. This year’s Festival is dedicated to the people who experienced the violent uprooting from their ancestral homes, both nameless and forgotten by history, and is interspersed with exhibitions, book presentations, special screenings and musical tributes to the Hellenism of the Anatolian East, to the Hellenism of Asia Minor. To all these people who with their struggles and their lives have solemnly sealed the phrase of the great poet Manolis Anagnostakis “I remember, therefore I exist”. As you know, without the Greeks of Asia Minor, Greece would be far poorer in all areas. As for the novelties of this year’s event, these will be many and varied, with the main ones being the existence of a new screening stage dedicated specifically to short documentaries, the existence of new international awards, the noticeable upgrading of the Panorama and the many and rich parallel cultural actions that will give the pulse and accompany the main cinematic narrative of the Festival.
What, in your opinion, has led to the success of the Festival over the years?
“Beyond Borders” was born from a chimera. That is, from a romantic intention and an idealistic goal according to which the promotion of culture and our historical “debts” to this place can and must find their way, even in marginal and seemingly barren lands. Our compass on this journey has always been the primacy of quality over quantity, i.e. the logic of a boutique in which upscale “products” are primarily found rather than crowded ones. Besides, on a pan-European level, boutique festivals are the modern and current “trend”. Therefore, our insistence and commitment to both the “boutique” character of the Festival and our willingness for constant renewal have played key roles in the preservation and perpetuation of “Beyond Borders”.
Summer – Castellorizo – Festival. What would you suggest to someone who wants to combine a summer holiday in Kastellorizo and attend the Festival?
Kastellorizo is such an enchanting place that every visitor, I think, needs to visit this place at least once in his life. It really is like another Wonderland, the feeling one gets in the harbour of the island in the morning or in the quiet alleys at night. As the experience can only be sensory, I would like to invite everyone who is interested in Culture and Arts to attend our Festival and after or before to visit the many wonderful sights of the island, as Kastellorizo is a place that cannot be described in words, but rather to live it in order to listen to its humble splendour.
