A short rainy break in Thessaloniki was followed again… by spring. However, mild inclement weather may have been enough to convince even more people to prefer a darkroom to city walks. Somehow, on Friday afternoon, we entered the packed Olympian to see a special screening, which, however, did not begin immediately.

Shortly before the start of No Bears, a group of women activists raised a banner on the stage with the words “Woman-Life-Freedom” written in English and Arabic, thus indicating solidarity with the women of Iran. After all, the director of the film, Jafar Panahi, has been in prison for several months because of his position against the repressive regime in Tehran. After watching the film, which premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, you can see why.

The protagonist is Panahi himself, who is actually in exile in a small village near the border of Iran and Azerbaijan. From there, through a laptop and a troubled internet connection, he tries to manage the production of his new film, unwittingly getting involved in the affairs of local residents, becoming objectionable. Panahi ingeniously combines three different stories into one, in a complex narrative film that is, however, made from the simplest materials. The constant control of authoritarian power, the desperation of the refugees, and the lack of education that exacerbates the problems are all captured on the screen. As star Mina Cavani, who was present at the screening, noted, “this is a great opportunity to speak loudly to the world about what a refugee is, as well as about the suffering that a dictatorship can inflict on people.”

Even Fatih Akin would probably not be welcomed if he tried to return to his country of origin, Turkey, due to his critical attitude towards the Erdogan government. However, in Thessaloniki, the Turkish-German director was personally deified during a sold-out screening of his new film, entitled Rhine Gold. There, Akin chooses as his hero Hatara, a famous rapper in Germany whose life is like a (hard) fairy tale. Born among the bombs in Iran, the protagonist will eventually become the king of illegal immigrants in Europe until he releases his first record from prison, starting a new life and career.

The next round of cash rebate, which has contributed to the explosion of foreign and domestic producers, will be 200 million euros.

Producers and market

A very interesting discussion took place on Sunday afternoon, as part of the Market Festival. It was attended by almost all independent producers in the country and even Digital Governance Secretary General Leonidas Christopoulos and Hellenic Development Bank CEO Athina Hatzipetra. The latter analyzed banking products exclusively for the audiovisual sector, which are able to offer interested persons loans from 25 to 900,000 euros on preferential terms through partner banks Piraeus and Optima. He also called – slyly but eloquently – for mergers that would make their companies bigger and more financially sustainable.

Mr. Christopoulos announced that the next round of cash rebate, the financial instrument of EKOME, which has made a decisive contribution to the recent explosion of foreign and domestic manufacturers in our country, is 200 million euros; in fact, unlike the first one (75 million euros) which came from the state budget, this will consist of European funds, which are expected to start “working” within the next 2-3 months. In addition, he spoke about another financial instrument in the amount of 62.5 million euros, which will be used as a guarantee for loans to Greek manufacturers.

As organizers of the event, the latter showed sympathy, expressing through their association (SAPOE) their hopes, but also their fears. Amanda Livanou (Neda Film), Fenya Kosovitsa (Blonde), Kostas Kefalas (Faliro House), Simos Magganis (Green Olive Films) talked about the critical liquidity issue – the flow of funds, which is currently irregular and slow, resulting in, among other than that, they remain open to their partners from abroad. They also stressed the need to create more training programs in order to better prepare the professional potential of the industry and thus meet local and foreign demand.