Meet the Competition Films of the 10th Beyond Borders

10th BEYOND BORDERS
KASTELLORIZO INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL
24 – 31 AUGUST 2025

Discover 42 powerful documentaries from around the world competing at the 10th Beyond Borders Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival

This year’s 10th edition of Beyond Borders – Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival (24–31 August 2025) presents 42 compelling films from across the globe, 35 of which will be screened as Greek, international, or world premieres. Many of these films have already traveled to the most prestigious film festivals worldwide, while others are making their debut right here in Kastellorizo.

The Main Competition Section features 18 medium- and feature-length documentaries (including 4 Greek productions), while the μicro Competition Section includes 24 short documentaries (with 3 Greek productions among them).

Strategic Partner of Beyond Borders is PPC Group (Public Power Corporation), the leading energy company in Southeastern Europe, which actively supports the arts and culture. As an integral part of the country’s social and economic fabric, PPC fosters dialogue with art and culture, empowering all those who lead us into a better future—where culture holds a central role.

This year’s program revolves around two thematic pillars: memory and the future. Key themes explored in the films include issues of memory, identity, and the processing of trauma—both personal and collective. War and its consequences, forced displacement, exile, and resettlement feature prominently. Several films address forms of state power, negligence, or authoritarianism, as well as the role of women and gender identity. Environmental collapse, climate justice, and anxiety about the future also take center stage. Coming-of-age stories set against difficult backdrops and broader human-centered narratives round out the festival’s thematic scope.

Below you will find summaries of all the films competing in both the Main and μicro Competition Sections, along with information about the filmmakers.
All trailers and full program details for 2025 are available on our official website: www.beyondborders.gr

Main Competition Section

Death Plan for a Dog and a Man, Christos Karakepelis, Greece, 2024, 66’
Amid lockdowns, an outcast plans—like an invincible superhero—an epic escape for himself and his dog from the deadliest virus of all: life itself. This adventurous journey of death leads them both, almost miraculously, from their dingy hovel to wild mountains and New York City—from suffocating reality to absolute freedom.

Christos Karakepelis (b. 1962) focuses on people exiled from societal norms, tightrope-walking on the edge of insecurity. He has collaborated with them for years in a search that transcends their personal stories as they become archetypal figures. He is currently filming Future Tenses, a documentary dialogue about survival struggles among three working-class communities (Greece, Tanzania, China).

Exam on the Edge of Time, İlkay Nişancı, Turkey, 2024, International Premiere, 89’
Before they could even bury their dead, people in Hatay were overwhelmed by the anxiety of exams following the earthquake. For many students, the university entrance exams became an escape from a city stripped of all memory. Meanwhile, their teachers—perhaps unwittingly—were constructing their own utopia. In this period of political apathy, as they memorised exam material, they simultaneously tried to erase images of their destroyed city. Yet each exam question evoked something—memories of distance, of the state, of rubble by the sea. If a city’s memory is trapped in that debris, then people’s struggle to build a future is nothing less than an “exam on the edge of time.”

İlkay Nişancı studied Film at Istanbul University and holds a Ph.D. in Journalism. Combining theory and practice, he has worked as a director, cinematographer, and editor on short films and documentaries. A member of the faculty at Istanbul University, he has taught directing, cinematography, and editing while continuing to work in film and television. He currently serves as assistant professor, balancing academic research with creative filmmaking and music.

Hawar, Our Banished Children, Pascale Bourgaux, Belgium–France–Switzerland, 2023, Greek Premiere, 74’
In 2014, thousands of Yazidi women were abducted by ISIS and subjected to sexual slavery. After her liberation, Ana is forced to abandon the child she bore from rape. All such children are deemed “bastards” and rejected by the Yazidi community. Four years later, Ana crosses Kurdistan in secret to reunite with her daughter, Marya.

Pascale Bourgaux is a filmmaker, author, and war correspondent. She has covered major conflicts and crises in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, and Afghanistan. Awarded numerous international prizes for her films and books, this documentary is the product of eight years of research and filming in Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan. It is the first film to break the taboo around Yazidi mothers searching for children born of jihadist rape.

Letters from Wolf Street, Arjun Talwar, Poland, 2023, Greek Premiere, 97’
An intelligent, personal portrait of Poland seen through the eyes of an immigrant director exploring life on a street in central Warsaw. While filming his neighbours in an effort to connect, he uncovers a network of characters living between past and present, homeland and host country. Assisted by his friend Mo, Arjun explores alienation, belonging, and identity—offering a detailed depiction of contemporary Europe that challenges stereotypes about Poland.

Arjun Talwar grew up in New Delhi and studied Mathematics before being admitted to the Film Department at Poland’s National Film School in Łódź. His shorts have screened at international festivals. His most recent feature, Letters from Wolf Street, premiered in Berlinale’s Panorama section.

Lo, Thanasis Vasileiou, Greece, 2025, 70’
One year after his mother’s death, the director returns to his childhood apartment in Athens to confront a troubling legacy. From the apartment’s now bare surfaces, fragments of family memories emerge, intertwining his personal story with the collective trauma of the Junta.

Thanasis Vasileiou (b. 12 December 1975, Athens) is a Greek director and screenwriter based in Poitiers, France. Since 2022 he’s been working on his autobiographical documentary Low. His shorts Traces (2017) and Our Last Week (2016) have screened internationally, winning special awards and nominations. He is Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Poitiers, teaching both film theory and practice.

Mountain of Gold, Roland Edzard, France, 2025, Greek Premiere, 85’
A team of gold prospectors embarks on a journey into the heart of Saharan gold-mining by traversing the remote and hostile regions of northern Niger. Driven by dreams of wealth and united by bonds of friendship, the protagonists undertake a perilous journey to the limits of legality.

After a childhood in the Algerian Sahara and adolescence in the Vosges Mountains of Alsace, Roland Edzard studied art at the Strasbourg School of Fine Arts and later at Le Fresnoy. He developed a video art practice that shifts the documentary image toward fictional dramaturgy (Judas, Dormeurs, collection at MAMC Strasbourg), followed by fiction films exploring power dynamics in family contexts. His films have won awards at Cannes and many other festivals worldwide.

Night Recedes, Timon Koulmasis, Greece-France, 2024, 70′

This film follows the riveting life journey of two significant artists: the renowned Greek sculptor Memos Makris (1913–1993) and the multifaceted personality of Zizi Makri (1924–2014). Set across Nazi-occupied Athens, postwar Paris, and Cold War-era Budapest, their story unfolds at the crossroads of art and history, hope and disillusionment, on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Through their work and memories, the film revisits themes that still resonate deeply: utopia and ideology, totalitarianism, exile, and freedom.

Timon Koulmasis lives and works as a director, writer, and producer in Paris and Athens. His fiction and documentary films have screened at major festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, and Montreal. In 2023, he was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

On Melting Snow, Mojtaba Bahadori, Belgium–Iceland, 2024, Greek Premiere, 73’ Every landscape holds the memory of our planet—memories brutally divided by time and artificial borders. For 33 years, Sophie Cauvin has journeyed through altered landscapes, collecting and reconnecting these fragmented memories through her striking works of art.

Mojtaba Bahadori is a filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist. He studied film at the University of Arts in Tehran and continued his training in Paris, refining his skills in cinematography and editing at the prestigious Louis Lumière School. His film explores the complex relationship between humans, nature, and art, highlighting creativity’s power to express and preserve our fragile natural world.

Sculpted Souls, Stavros Psillakis, Greece, 2025, 90’

Julien Grivel (b. 1943), a Swiss dentist, came to Athens twice a year from 1972 to 1998, treating the teeth of people with Hansen’s disease (leprosy) at the Infectious Diseases Hospital “Agia Varvara”—always free of charge. In his book Greece: My Own Ithaca, he writes: “By adopting the Greek language, I unconsciously adopted their way of thinking… an inner journey that helped me see the world and life differently.” His friendship with former patient Manolis Foundoulakis was transformative. “You know, my friend,” Manolis told him, “these trials sculpt a person’s soul beautifully.”

Stavros Psillakis (b. 1954, Chania) is a documentary filmmaker and producer whose work centers on the human condition. He studied Mechanical Engineering (NTUA), film directing in Athens, and anthropological documentary in Paris (Ateliers Varan). Awarded by EDA, the Golden Alexander (2023), and FIPRESCI (2025), he has directed over 40 documentaries, including No Other Way, Metaxa, and Sculpted Souls.

The Getaway, Nikita Popkov, Russia, 2025, World Premiere, 93’

Three different people confront themselves in times of darkness.

Nikita Popkov studied economics at Plekhanov University and later attended the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. His first short documentary was created during his training at the Migachev and Simonov film workshop. In 2021, during his military service, he won the “Best Short Film” award at the Doker International Documentary Festival.

The German People, Marcin Wierzchowski, Poland, 2025, Greek Premiere, 133’ The film investigates the aftermath of the racist attack in Hanau, Germany, on February 19, 2020, where nine people were killed. Through the voices of survivors and victims’ families, it documents their grief, search for justice, and fight against systemic racism—not only in the crime itself but also in the state’s handling of it. As public attention fades, their battle for memory and accountability continues, raising urgent questions about inclusion, citizenship, and who truly belongs in German society.

Marcin Wierzchowski (b. 1984, Warsaw) is a director, producer, and visual artist based in Frankfurt and Warsaw. He left school at 17 to work at a video store, later completing his education and studying Fine Arts with a focus on film. His documentary Hanau – A Night and Its Aftermath received the Grimme Award and inspired The German People, which premiered at Berlinale 2025. He is a Gerd Ruge fellow and works across fiction and nonfiction.

The Longer You Bleed, Ewan Waddell, Ukraine, 2025, Greek Premiere, 65’ This personal documentary follows displaced Ukrainians in Berlin as they grapple with the trauma of watching their homeland burn—in real time—through Instagram pixels. As the characters emotionally detach from the horrors of war, absurdist humor becomes a survival tool and the film’s lens for critiquing post-industrial society as a site of trauma processing.

Ewan Waddell is a British filmmaker working in fiction, documentary, and experimental cinema. His multimedia approach explores themes like modernity and rupture. His works have screened at festivals such as Hot Docs and Long Beach Underground. His award-winning Fragmented Youth and collaborations with the Seoul Arts & Culture Foundation are notable. He is currently developing a feature documentary about psychedelic therapy in wartime Ukraine. Waddell holds degrees from the University of Leeds and the Catalyst Institute in Berlin.

The Lost Season, Mehdi Ghanavati, Iran, 2024, Greek Premiere, 63’ Seasonal dust blankets the village where Kosar lives. Lake Hamun has dried up, and the Sistan region grows more arid every year—it’s as if life itself is vanishing. Kosar is a teenage student in a small village near the Afghanistan border. Like many girls her age, she’s expected to marry young, per tradition. But Kosar dreams of going to university. Amid drought and dust in southeastern Iran, her dreams seem increasingly out of reach.

Mehdi Ghanavati (b. 1981, Hendijan, Iran) is a documentary filmmaker and editor. He gained national recognition with Hamja (2017), which won six major awards and screened at international festivals. His filmography includes Jajim, Majnoon-e-Hamishegi, Javaz, Mohsenkhan, and The Lost Season (2024). He has also edited documentaries for Iranian state TV and Al Jazeera Documentary Channel.

The Tirana Conspiracy, Manfredi Lucibello, Italy, 2024, Greek Premiere, 71’ December 2000. Famed photographer Oliviero Toscani accepts an invitation by art critic Giancarlo Politi to curate a section of the inaugural Tirana Biennale. Toscani presents four scandalous artists whose provocative works—deemed offensive, inappropriate, even immoral—spark outrage: a pedophile, a pornographer, a Nigerian activist on the run, and Bin Laden’s official photographer. This was only the beginning of one of contemporary art’s greatest fiascos. Now that the crimes have been time-barred, the protagonists can finally reveal the truth.

Manfredi Lucibello studied under Giuseppe Bertolucci at Cineteca di Bologna. In 2013, he directed Centoquaranta – La strage dimenticata, which screened at the 54th Festival dei Popoli and won the 32nd Bellaria FF. His debut feature Tutte le mie notti came in 2018, followed by Bice Lazzari – The Rhythm and Obsession (2022) and Non riattacare (2023), selected at the Torino and Raindance festivals.

To Use a Mountain, Casey Carter, USA, 2025, Greek Premiere, 99’ Six rural U.S. communities are selected as potential sites for burying 77,000 tons of nuclear waste. Against the cold logic of official reports and assessments, a grassroots story of resistance and care for the land emerges—told through a sensory journey across landscapes, ecosystems, and personal histories.

Casey Carter is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary designer working in nonfiction through film, photography, data visualization, and mapping. His work explores governance, geography, environmentalism, and subjective experience. He has received support from institutions like the Sundance Documentary Film Program and IDA. To Use a Mountain is his feature debut, for which he directed, shot, and edited.

Welcome to Babel, James Bradley, Australia, 2024, Greek Premiere, 95’ An obsessive artist, a mad plan, and the tumultuous history of Communism intertwine in this deep dive into the blood-soaked revolutions of the 20th century. This narrative is set against a tender portrait of a marriage forged in the chaos of China’s Cultural Revolution.

James Bradley is a documentary veteran with 40 years of experience in writing, producing, directing, and editing. Known for narrative strength and intercultural depth, he co-directed 50 Years of Silence and helmed the award-winning Ochre and Ink. As an editor, he contributed to acclaimed Indigenous projects like Radiance and Mr Patterns—for which he won the 2005 AFI Award. A creator for ABC TV and educator at top film schools, he received the Stanley Hawes Award in 2019. Welcome to Babel marks his feature-length debut and won the 2024 Sydney Film Festival Documentary Award.

Welcome to the Orchard of England, Louis Norris, UK, 2025, Greek Premiere, 43’ Historically known as England’s “orchard,” Herefordshire is an apple-growing region. This film gathers a wide, eccentric mix of locals—farmers, Roma, former apple pickers, vicars, cider festivalgoers, producers, and fruit vendors—to explore the deep bond between people and their historic crop. Part portrait of a vanishing way of life, part celebration of a living culture, it poses profound questions about human nature. Expect games, pies, dances, petty theft, and apple varieties galore.

Louis Norris is a director and editor whose work explores how people relate to the places they live. His films have screened at festivals worldwide and won numerous awards.

Wild Women of Anatolia, Sedef and Aslı Özoğuz, Turkey, 2024, International Premiere, 88’ This documentary gathers stories from five women in five Anatolian landscapes. Through their personal journeys as “wild women,” they share dreams of freedom and deep connections to nature. The film is structured into four elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air.

Sedef Özoğuz is a writer, documentarian, and professor of Psychology at The New School in New York. Born and raised in Istanbul, she studied in the UK and earned a Ph.D. in Critical Social Psychology in New York. Her work blends psychology with cinema.

Aslı Özoğuz is a writer and director based in Istanbul. She studied Media and Communications at Goldsmiths and holds a diploma in Narrative Film from the Prague Film School. She has worked in the film industry as an assistant director on both indie and Hollywood/Netflix productions. She has written and directed two short films (Maya, 2020; Look at Us Now, 2018) and co-directed Wild Women of Anatolia with her sister Sedef.

μicro Competition Section

Al Basateen, Antoine Chapon, France, 2025, Greek Premiere, 24’
In 2015, the Basateen al-Razi neighborhood in Damascus and its orchards were razed as collective punishment for the local population’s uprising against the regime. Having lost everything, two former residents recall their memories of the neighborhood.
Antoine Chapon is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. His work blends cinema, 3D digital rendering (CGI), and archival material, creating hybrid narrative forms. His first short film, My Own Landscapes, premiered at Visions du Réel, where it won Best Short Film. He is currently developing his first feature-length documentary.

Albgreko, Ilir Tsouko, Greece, 2024, 27’
The children and grandchildren of Albanian migrants from the 1990s were born and raised in Greece. Denisa, Dimitris, Stefania, and Orestis share their stories—not of migration itself, but of their lived experience. A story that is neither purely Albanian nor purely Greek. It is both. Something new, clear, and hopeful is emerging from this generation. At a time when identity wars rage across the globe—especially in Europe and the Balkans—the director’s camera captures these layered identities not as burdens of the past, but as compasses pointing toward a better future.
Ilir Tsouko is a visual storyteller, photographer, and filmmaker. Born in Albania and raised in Athens, he now lives between Berlin and Tirana. His long-term projects explore the perception and formation of identity in its ever-shifting forms. His work has been published by The New York Times, The Guardian, DIE ZEIT MAGAZIN, The Washington Post, ARTE, ZDF, Der Spiegel, Vogue, Polaroid, among others. Albgreko is his first solo documentary.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Thanos Liberopoulos, Greece, 2024, World Premiere, 17’
A small group of Afghan children attending an improvised refugee school in Athens prepare to speak out against the Taliban’s growing control over Afghanistan. Will their voices be loud enough to draw global attention—or will their families and friends continue to suffer under the regime’s brutal oppression?
Thanos Lymperopoulos is a filmmaker with a background in music, having released multiple albums with various bands before transitioning to visual storytelling. He has directed and filmed numerous music videos and worked as a director of photography for commercials and web series. In cinema, he has collaborated as DOP on feature films, shorts, and documentaries. His short doc Dunaym, about a Kurdish political refugee, screened at festivals across Greece, and his fiction short Beauty premiered at the Drama Short Film Festival 2021 before traveling to other festivals.

Clear Sky, Marcin Kundera, Poland, 2024, Greek Premiere, 21’
Wowa and Roma wander the streets of Kramatorsk, Ukraine, savoring the last days of summer. Their childhood is coming to an end—though it was never carefree. In the background: the distant hum of the front line, air raid sirens, and constant glances toward the sky. The war, protracted and exhausting, has faded from global attention, yet its shadow still looms over those living near it. Still, Wowa and Roma try to experience childhood in a world that offers little comfort.
Marcin Kundera is a Polish cinematographer, photographer, documentary filmmaker, and theatre artist. Since 2010, he has been an active member of the Bydgoszcz Newsreel film group. He graduated from the Leon Wyczółkowski School of Fine Arts and holds a master’s degree in Cinematography from the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School. He is also a humanitarian organizer and activist.

Crossing, Karol Felicio, Brazil, 2024, International Premiere, 15’
Crossing delves into the heart of the village of Rio Piraquê-Açu, revealing the dilemma faced by young Indigenous mothers. Though lovingly cared for by their grandmother and traditional midwife Keretxchu, they choose to give birth in hospitals. Caught between tradition and modernity, the film asks: is ancestral knowledge at risk of vanishing? With sensitivity, Crossing reflects on identity, motherhood, and the challenges of transitioning from past to future. Travessia (Crossing) is the path.
Karol Felicio is a director with a poetic and sensitive lens focused on motherhood, childhood, Indigenous communities, and cultural traditions. She has directed and authored the documentaries Crossing and Keretxchu’s Legacy. She holds a journalism degree from UVV–BR, with postgraduate studies in Digital Marketing, and furthered her directing studies at Bucarest Ateliê/SP following editorial work at Abril Publishing.

Death of a Format, Marios Lizides, Cyprus, 2023, Greek Premiere, 11’
As the owner of the last video rental store in Cyprus waits for customers, the gift shop next door, run by his sister, slowly expands its territory.
Marios Lizides is a multi-award-winning interdisciplinary Cypriot director, cinematographer, editor, sound designer, and software developer. His films have been screened at numerous festivals, including the 22nd and 25th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival and the 73rd Edinburgh International Film Festival. A graduate of the Edinburgh College of Art with a specialization in Creative Documentary and Hybrid Films, he has taught documentary directing and served as Artistic Director of Cyprus Film Days International Festival (2022–2025). He is a former board member of the Directors Guild of Cyprus (2019–2023) and a member of the European Film Academy.

Fatbardha, Kitty Kentezi, Greece, 2024, 24’
Fatbardha and Niko, an elderly married couple, live in a small house. Niko is bedridden, and despite her own physical limitations, Fatbardha cares for them both. As age and illness keep them from going out, their bond deepens through the rhythm of everyday life—just before they part forever.
Kitty Kentezi was born in the Balkans in 1994 and lives in Europe. She studied Public Administration at Panteion University with a focus on Law and Political Science, while simultaneously attending the Stavrakos Film School. She has worked as assistant director on Greek and international productions, including Sacrifice (by Romain Gavras), House of David (Amazon, directed by Jon Erwin), and Guest Star (by Vasilis Christofilakis). She has also worked in casting for productions such as So Long Marianne (about Leonard Cohen), Daisy Jones and the Six, and Smyrna My Beloved (by Grigoris Karantinakis). She is currently developing her next film, Angelina, My Love.

GIOJA22, Stefano De Felici, Italy, 2023, Greek Premiere, 10’ A new skyscraper emerges on the horizon, amidst towering glass buildings and vertical forests—symbols of Milan’s modern skyline. Alone, a man dares to climb the building, defying the concrete and glass strongholds of contemporary financial power. His act of political disobedience, 150 meters above ground, compels the world—if only for a few hours—to look up and reflect on the meaning of the phrase “stay human.”

Stefano De Felici is a filmmaker and creator who began his research journey through the audiovisual medium, expanding into other languages and forms of expression. His works have been awarded and screened at international film festivals and contemporary art venues.

Gypsy Gadji, Dáša Raimanová, Slovakia, 2024, Greek Premiere, 28’ The Roma are Poland’s largest and most marginalized ethnic minority. Roxana identifies as both Roma and Polish (Gadji). She works as a teaching assistant, striving to keep Roma children in school—over half of whom drop out before the age of sixteen. She could be the perfect bridge between two worlds, but each culture demands she reject the other. Roxana, however, simply wants to belong.

Dáša Raimanová is a Slovak-born documentary filmmaker and producer based in London and Berlin. Her work focuses on socio-political topics, especially those affecting women and minorities. Gypsy Gadji won Best Short Documentary at the Lucania Film Festival (Italy, 2024). Her feature Polyland (2018) screened at international festivals and in over sixty community screenings across Europe. Since 2018, she has worked with the documentary department of Deutsche Welle (DW) in Berlin, where she has directed and produced several short documentaries.

How to Suture the Soil?, Wil Paucar Calle, Ecuador, 2024, Greek Premiere, 17’ A son writes a letter to his mother as he follows the same path she once took, forced to leave her rural home in Ecuador in the late 1970s and early 1980s due to state neglect. The past echoes in the present, threading through personal and geographical trauma.

Wil Paucar Calle is a graduate of Film from the University of the Arts in Ecuador, with a focus on analog and experimental image-making processes. In 2020, he received a screenwriting grant from the Ecuadorian National Film Archive. He has worked as an editor for the EDOC Festival and is editor-in-chief of 25Watts magazine. His competition film premiered at IDFA 2024 and received the Ernesto Albán Award from the Municipality of Quito for his short El Viento trae canciones del Trópico (2023). He is currently developing his first feature film.

I Didn’t Get into Berghain but I Did Meet Vica, Evan Frijters, Netherlands, 2024, International Premiere, 22’ Ukrainian Vica escapes the trauma of war, seeking refuge in Berlin’s drug-fueled nightlife. Realizing the city cannot offer her the future she craves, she moves to the UK in search of isolation. Through phone conversations with the filmmaker, Vica reflects on coming of age and the need to reclaim a sense of belonging—lost not only to displacement, but to fragile familial ties further strained by war. She returns to Odessa, hoping to rediscover familiarity, only to find that war reshapes even the best-laid plans.

Evan Frijters began his studies at Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) aiming to become a documentarian. His first major work began with a chance encounter and evolved into a cinematic exploration of the human psyche amid war in Europe. As a director, he emphasizes observational storytelling, discovering people and phenomena that embody broader narratives.

My Land is Burned, Abdulrahman Alshowaiki, Belgium, 2024, Greek Premiere, 30’ In Arsal, Lebanon, the film portrays the multifaceted challenges faced by Syrian refugee children and their families. Amid adversity, the quiet acts of hope by a compassionate teacher echo the brave longing for a brighter, happier generation.

Abdulrahman Alshowaiki was born in Damascus, Syria, which he was forced to flee at 19 after joining a student protest against the Assad regime. After years in Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Senegal, and Gambia, he found refuge in Belgium, where he studied business and film at LUCA School of Arts. His graduation film Mona received international acclaim, an honorary VAF mention, and festival invitations, premiering at FEST New Directors New Films in Portugal. His graduation thesis Trip to Heaven, chronicling his parents’ journey from marriage to exile, paved the way for his first professional work in documentary.

Once I Got In, It Was Hard to Get Out, Nora Štrbová, Czech Republic, 2024, Greek Premiere, 28’ Ida clears the home of her grandfather, an artist, wandering through a studio filled with strange objects and forgotten history. Like her earlier work SPACES, Štrbová explores themes of memory and loss, blending fiction and documentary. With Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso No. 12 (“La Folia”) as soundtrack, the film evokes the fragile materiality of remains—dead and living. A parrot’s head, a plaster cast of her grandmother’s chest, a realtor covered in moss—each becomes an archaeological relic in a personal museum of family history.

Nora Štrbová (1994) is a Czech-Slovak artist and filmmaker born in Bratislava. She studied animation and documentary directing at FAMU in Prague. Her works include SPACES (2020), which premiered at Visions du Réel and screened at IDFA and Poitiers; Once I Got In, It Was Hard to Get Out (2024), which won Best Sound Design at Jihlava IDFF; and her newest film What If We Run Out of Stones? (2025), which premiered at Visions du Réel. She also creates music videos and animation jingles, including Distress, which premiered at Annecy in 2020.

P.S., Aleš Suk, Croatia, 2024, Greek Premiere, 15’ An evocative and haunting ballad about the last resident of a remote North Adriatic island, whose fate is shaped by the harsh natural climate and the systemic indifference of local authorities. The remnants of this lone soul—traces of existence—become messages from a place where everything seems destined to vanish.

Aleš Suk (b. 1977, Vrchlabi, Czech Republic) studied animation and directing at FAMU in Prague. He taught montage and moving image composition, and later animation and interactive design at the University of Rijeka, Croatia. He has directed and produced documentaries and experimental films. Suk is a member of the Croatian Filmmakers Association and lives in Rijeka.

Refuge, Partha Das, India, 2024, World Premiere, 24’ Farooq, a disabled Muslim street vendor in Mumbai, struggles to survive post-lockdown as his family faces financial ruin. When a con artist disappears with his wife’s savings, Farooq embarks on a journey to Kolkata with his teenage son to claim a small inheritance. Along the way, buried memories resurface, exposing deeper wounds from a troubled past. Shot entirely on a mobile phone over four years, this intimate observational documentary offers a quiet, powerful portrait of life on the margins—capturing the fragile existence of a Muslim family in contemporary India.

Partha Das is a self-taught audiovisual artist working across film, performance, and installation art. His works have been showcased at major galleries and institutions including Lalit Kala Akademi, Alliance Française du Bengale, the Museum of Modern Art (Michigan), and the Portuguese Cultural Institute. For the past five years, he has worked on his first feature documentary The Invisible Wayfarers—a meditative project born of over one hundred days of pilgrimage with Sufi devotees. Refuge is his debut short film.

Simply Divine, Mélody Boulissière & Bogdan Stamatin, France, 2024, 14’ Romania, 1939. A soldier follows a young woman. Their love story begins. Then he is called to the front—and love is lost to war. In 2014, during a long interview, 91-year-old Noucha reveals the secrets of a forgotten era. What remains of a love story three-quarters of a century and a world war later?

Mélody Boulissière is a graduate of ENSAD (Paris) and La Poudrière (Valence). Her graduation film Ailleurs was selected for the Cannes Cinéfondation program in 2016. She co-wrote and co-directed the children’s series Patouille, produced by Miyu Production and France Télévisions. Simply Divine is her second short film.

Bogdan Stamatin is a Romanian artist living between France and Romania. He uses film to explore the passage of time and its effects on people. From 2015 to 2021, he founded and directed the Câmpulung Film Fest in his hometown, Câmpulung Moldovenesc. Until 2024, he served as director of the city’s Museum of Woodcarving.

Specters of Home – Prologue, Ava Aviva Avnisan, United States, 2024, International Premiere, 9′

Specters of Home – Prologue is a lyrical cinematic essay following a trans woman time traveler returning to Jerusalem, the city of her birth, to uncover complex personal and historical truths. Inspired by Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil, the film explores the intersection of personal identity and historical trauma, weaving the protagonist’s gender transition with an inquiry into the events of the founding of Israel in 1948.

Ava Aviva Avnisan is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of image, text, and code. Using technologies such as 3D scanning, AR/VR, and generative AI, Ava creates installations, performances, photographs, and films that challenge dominant narratives through embodied encounters with language. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, including at Pratt Institute, the Henry Art Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Her texts and projects have been published in BOMB Magazine, BRILL, Routledge, and the Electronic Literature Collection. She is an Assistant Professor at San Diego State University and holds dual MFAs in Poetry and Art & Technology Studies.

The sun is low, Marta Ojrzynska, Poland, 2025, Greek Premiere, 18′

Following a breakup with her partner, a mother embarks on a road trip in a camper van with her eight-year-old son. Together, they begin a new life—just the two of them. The journey is accompanied by touching conversations and painted landscapes. Over this brief voyage, their roles subtly shift. A road movie about a singular and profound kind of love.

Marta Ojrzyńska is a director, actress, and screenwriter. She graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Krakow, the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, and STUDIO PRÓB at the Wajda School in Warsaw. She has worked for years in theatre and film, both as an actress and as a writer/director of stage plays. Her collaborators include Luc Perceval, Wilhelm Sasnal, Krystian Lupa, Krzysztof Garbaczewski, Monika Strzępka, Michał Borczuch, Aleksandra Terpińska, and Jagoda Szelc.

The Truth About the Telegraph, Kieran Mpetyane Satour, Australia, 2024, International Premiere, 17′

The Truth About the Telegraph explores the disruptions caused by the Overland Telegraph Line through the stories of the Kaytetye and Warumungu peoples and their encounters with the telegraph stations, sites of frontier violence. Set in Central Australia, the film transports the audience beyond colonial narratives shaped by settlers and infrastructure, revealing a complex mosaic of testimony that tells a story of cultural displacement, resilience, deep land connection, and survival amidst rapid societal change.

Kieran Mpetyane Satour is a writer, producer, and director from the Gurindji/Malngin, Pertame Arrernte, and Worimi communities. Drawing on his ancestral heritage, he creates works that spotlight the strength, beauty, and resilience of Indigenous peoples. He directed and produced We Are Warriors: Through The Fire and NGURRAWAANA, a story about a Māori family working to revive Kāi Tahu country and culture. He is co-founder of GARUWA, a 100% Aboriginal-owned and controlled production company, and Indigitek, a nonprofit focused on increasing Indigenous participation and success in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics).

Through the window, Daniel Stopa, Poland, 2025, Greek Premiere, 10′

They come to buy cigarettes and newspapers, to boast, to complain, or just to talk. A mother with a teething baby, a woman worried about her sick cat, an old man devoted to a Catholic radio station… As many faces as pass through the kiosk window, so many small or large human stories unfold—some funny, some bitter, all authentic and deeply affecting.

Daniel Stopa is a director and producer. His short films have been screened and awarded at numerous international festivals, including DocuDays UA in Kyiv and BogoShorts in Bogotá. He is currently working on two new documentaries: Until the Wedding and The Fat One and The Warrior’s Path.

Vertigo, Alejandra Sanchez Canan, Spain, 2024, World Premiere, 13′

We travel to Teresa de Cofrentes, a rural village in Valencia’s inland region, threatened by depopulation. There, we meet the few remaining residents who still call it home, listening to their stories and their fears about the village’s potential disappearance.

Alejandra Sánchez Casañ makes her directorial debut with a film shot in her hometown. Born in 1999, she has already gained experience in art-house cinema, advertising, and theatre. She has worked as a production designer on Coronación (ESCAC STUDIO), Malet (RODAR y RODAR CINE), and Ser un Hombre (Sumendi Filmak), and has collaborated as assistant designer on the play Com cantar sobreviviré sense que m’exploti un pulmó by Dana Carbonell and Raquel Camón, among others.

We will grow, Areti Pagoulatou, United Kingdom, 2025, 25′

In the summer of 2023, the island of Rhodes was hit by the most devastating wildfires in its history, burning over 180,000 acres. During the eleven days of the fires, locals put their lives on hold to volunteer, creating a grassroots support network that revealed the lack of personnel and equipment to manage natural disasters in Greece. The film follows activists who emerged during the crisis as they reflect on their experience and loss.

Areti Pagoulatou grew up in Rhodes and studied Film at the University of Westminster in London. After graduating in 2024, she began working as a Researcher in Unscripted Film & TV in the UK, while pursuing personal projects independently. Her work focuses on alternative models of social organization through an environmental lens, migration, and gentrification.

Welcome home freckles, Huiju Park, United Kingdom, 2025, Greek Premiere, 26′

For the first time in four years, a daughter returns to Daegu, South Korea, determined to end a long-standing family conflict. Her parents have been hurting each other for years, unable to live harmoniously. Despite efforts for peace, old wounds remain unhealed. Through conversations with her parents, she uncovers a pattern of intergenerational domestic violence deeply embedded in her family’s history. Ultimately, she realizes she must be the one to break the cycle.

Huiju Park is a South Korean documentary filmmaker based in London whose work explores the intersection of personal experience and broader social issues. Her films are inspired by her intimate relationship with the world around her and strongly emphasize feminism. Huiju often appears as a character in her own documentaries, blending her narrative with those of the people she films, creating a dialogue between her work and its audience. After years of making personal documentaries, she now channels the courage and resilience from her own experiences into empowering new voices and perspectives.

Work / memories of work, Ektoras Arkomanis, United Kingdom, Greek Premiere, 21′

In Eleonas, Athens, the last days of a tannery unfold against the backdrop of local work scenes—scrap collectors’ markets, old farmhouses, abandoned bakeries, people laboring amid ruins and construction sites. The narration, written on postcards never sent, forms a polyphonic poem from fragments of literature, testimony, and collective memory that spans centuries: in antiquity, Eleonas was a vast olive grove; in the 19th century, a hub of infrastructure; more recently, an industrial zone—always on the periphery of the city’s consciousness.

Ektoras Arkomanis is a writer and artist. He uses film for its power to preserve and investigate, but is especially interested in what the medium leaves out—its failure to describe what no longer exists, and the stories invented to fill these voids. He is currently working on A Season in the Olive Grove, a long-term cinematic and research project on the Eleonas area in Athens. He co-authored and edited Migrations in New Cinema (Cours de Poétique, 2020) and recently completed the collaborative installation Protea/Extraction, commissioned by the Anti-Apartheid Centre of Memory and Learning. He teaches architectural history and theory at London Metropolitan University.

Photos from the festival can be found HERE and film stills HERE.

Watch the detailed programme of 2025 HERE.

Watch the trailer of the 10th edition HERE.

Selected photos from the Press Conference you can find HERE.

For more information, visit: www.beyondborders.gr or email info@beyondborders.gr

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Organized by the Hellenic History Foundation (IDISME), in collaboration with France’s Ecrans des Mondes.

Co-organized by the South Aegean Region with the support of the Hellenic Parliament, Ministry of National Defense, General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad & Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Secretariat for the Aegean & Island Policy of the Ministry of Shipping, EKKOMED – Creative Greece (National Centre for Audiovisual Media & Communication), Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), Greek National Tourism Organization and the embassies of Australia, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Switzerland in Athens.