What place will the visitor take when observing the city “from the side of the pilgrim” in the great universal festival that will begin next Saturday, February 4, on the coast of Eleusis? Philippos Koutsaftis will be there. He will attend a “colorful” program of exhibitions, concerts, DJ parties and related events, which will end the next evening. Festive as required, the official launch of the European Capital of Culture for 2023 will feature a rather silent protagonist. The director of the documentary The Unsatisfied Stone has his share of the holiday. His documentary was the key document in the file submitted by Elefsina for the title.

Since 2001, when “Agelastos petta” was shown for the first time, with such success that since then it has not been surpassed by documentaries, it has not stopped traveling abroad, being discussed, rewarded, being a landmark for the city. but also for Greek cinema. In May 1988, Philippos Koutsaftis shot the first footage on film. Since then, for 12 years, he visited the city and recorded its evolution over time. The ancient face of Elefsina, which clashes daily with her current face, has set cinematic routes. “From the first day, the gates of miracles seemed to open. Such was the richness of the material.”

Slowly and thoughtfully, he comments, you don’t know whether the experienced joy from the constant return to Eleusis, or the commitment to the next already started project: “Eleusinians”. The portraits of the inhabitants, some of which have already appeared in the Agelasto Petra, speak of today’s city. Once again myth and history are intertwined. The past will be an element of narration through selected texts. The film, which is currently filming, is slated for release next November. “These are the portraits of the Eleusinians that we choose with my close partner Thanasis Milisis. The art of the biographer, said Marcel Schwob, is to give the life of a poor actor the same value as Shakespeare. These are not portraits of heroes. These are ordinary people with the grandeur of everyday life,” he elaborates. “People who go through history in different ways. There are three female students, for example, brilliant minds. These children must have been born in the year in which Agelastos Petra was shown. They discovered this documentary shortly before the pandemic, I contacted them, they wanted to talk about how they feel. How they see and how they manage their lives.

We are in his office at Gizi, on the eve of his trip to Paris. His recent documentary Zakros (sponsored by Raycap AE) had its world premiere on January 25 at the Louvre. From Eleusis to the excavations at Zakros, Crete, where he first traveled in 1987, while already thinking about his next destination: Aegina. With Philippos Koutsaftis, you lose track of the years. All his documentaries are hard work, mental and physical dedication, stretching over decades. Parallel courses that intertwine. The “grandmother” of cities and regions where one is contained in the other.

But let’s find the beginning of the thread again: Eleusis, which this year is in the center of Europe. What does this city mean to him, how would he describe it?

“Elefsina is a very big scale for Greece, going beyond ecology, economics or politics. On the other hand, in the consciousness of the New Greek Eleusis there is our sinful song. This is what we have turned away from. Bad lie. There is a beautiful Sepheris verse that says: “We were hungry in the back of the earth / when we ate well / we fell here in the lowlands / ignorant and full.” In the 1950s, when reconstruction began, we turned our backs on it in fury. We are in a hurry to become Europe. At the time, they said, “What an ancient now… we are interested in building, having a job, moving forward.” Another time, other priorities.”

Elefsina is a very large size for Greece, going beyond ecology, economics or politics. In the 1950s, when reconstruction began, we turned our backs on it in fury.

One of the first images in Agelasto Petra in 1988 was the excavation of a piece of land in Upper Eleusis. Guided by the planet, Salo (Panagiotis Farmakis, he died before the end of the film), a man who moved like an elf, pursued and slightly shadowed, who loved ancient things, searched in the rubble, everything he found he gave to the archaeologists, “a man of others times.” Philippos Koutsaftis identified himself with him. However, in all his documentaries, excavations are carried out in parallel with today. A film director and a digger of people and places at the same time. “How to find the way?” he asks. “The selection criterion is to devote myself to something from where I will receive knowledge. Science Archeology opens simultaneously with cinema. They are methodologically related. Just like in the documentary. They are both built from fragments. These are destroyed worlds, collected in parts. Fragments of history, archeology, memory, everyday life, from which you are trying to make a mosaic. And with the “Eleusinians” the same thing. Anonymous individuals. On the path of time and history.

“What did you learn from Anonymous?” we ask. “Too much. I’m grateful. I found a whole piece of Asia Minor when I was filming The Untouchable Stone. Back then, no one talked about refugees. At that time, I interviewed a lot of Holocaust survivors. Most of them had fictional lives.”

In the Eleusinian stories, Philippos Koutsaftis “sees” Greece in 2023. “Very different from 2000. The city has suffered and is suffering from an economic crisis exacerbated by the pandemic… People are slowly shutting down, piling up to face difficult conditions. Many young people work odd jobs to help their families. The Capital of Culture is a great opportunity and CEO Michael Marmarinos and the entire team have done a great job. It can change the city… I have seen with my own eyes how Marseille is transformed thanks to the Capital of Culture.”

“I didn’t get out of there. I feel grateful to the city. I received much more than I gave. I am part of it. But I didn’t stay integrated. I left to come back to see with a new look. Because the eye gets used to good / bad, and you see them in about the same way. I learned about it from the Air Force. I studied mechanical engineering when I was in the Air Force, I was an aeronautical engineer. I had three planes under my command. Sometimes I got three strangers. Because the other person immediately sees the problem. This is what has been studied. I’m not saying anything new. Everything, everything I do is an occasion to think further… Half a step. What the person is trying to do is move one millimeter forward.