Greek Documentary Awarded in Berlin

The Cinema for Peace Foundation in Berlin, Germany honored Greek documentary “Recycling Medea: Not an Opera Ballet Film” by Asteris Kutulas with the Most Valuable Documentary for 2014 award. The documentary impressed the international jury, who described it as “unconventional” and “highly artistic.”

The ceremony was attended by several world-famous artists and actors such as Catherine Deneuve, Uma Thurman, Ennio Morricone, Ornella Muti, Sir Christopher Lee and the band Pussy Riot.

Asteris Kutulas’ film, which was screened three weeks ago in the historical cinema Babylon in Berlin, will also be presented on February 23 in Cologne and on March 19 in Luxembourg.

“Recycling Medea” is a balletic narration of the famous Euripides’ play where a mother murders her two children, choreographed by Renato Zanella, with music by Mikis Theodorakis. The director used the antique Greek tragedy as a metaphor for Greece’s and Europe’s current tragedy — Medea kills her own children, while modern society has ruined the life and future of the younger generation.

Commenting on his film, Kutulas has said,”Despite being recycled through myriads of versions since antiquity, this subject has lost none of its everyday and brutal topicality.”

He also stated that he wanted to bring out the desperation of a woman as well as today’s youth who are fighting against their own society.