Christos Passalis' and Syllas Tzoumerkas' filmic installation The City and the City is coming to SNFCC

The Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera in collaboration with the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center presents Christos Passalis' and Syllas Tzoumerkas' filmic installation The City and the City at the SNFCC Panoramic Steps, as part of the tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution.

The project The City and the City, a co-production of the GNO Alternative Stage with Homemade Films, will be presented on 8, 9, 10 & 11 July 2021 at 9.30pm. It is a filmic installation displaying six chapters from the history of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, projected simultaneously on three cinema screens. The project was curated by Orestis Andreadakis, artistic director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

This production, part of a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org].

With the project The City and the City, Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas, two acclaimed film and theatre directors and actors born both in Thessaloniki in 1978, return creatively to their native city for the first time, giving life to a filmic undertaking that blurs the lines between fiction, documentary and essay film.

Six chapters from the life and perils of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki are moulded with the image of the city of today, creating a multi-character narration in which two cities co-exist in the same frame: then and now are diffused in each other, in search of both their origins as well as a common direction for tomorrow. The initial version of The City and the City, unveiled at the SNFCC Panoramic Steps, takes the form of a three-screen installation with simultaneous projection.

The City and the City encapsulates the experience of a city that violently lost its multi-cultural character, through the following six chapters of the life and perils of its Jewish community:

• A day before the fire
• Liberty Square
• The march and the funeral of Sarah, maid and foster-daughter
• Liberation and the return
• The trial
• Prologue / Epilogue (1983)

Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas state: "Two cities co-exist in the same frame: last century's and today's Thessaloniki. Space and time are blended together in a strange, enigmatic way: the lost city, the struggling, humiliated, lost people co-exist with today's city and people.

Two currents are thus formed: one is the contemporary current, the everyday, real one, which takes place normally, by default. The other one is based on the true experience of a lost era, which left behind wounds that are still open as well as traces of a lost Eden.

The two currents, the contemporary and the other one, meet and converse at the cracks - within a dream."

Cast: Vassilis Kanakis, Alexandros Vardaxoglou, Angeliki Papoulia, Argyris Xafis, Niki Papandreou, Vassilis Karamboulas, Themis Bazaka, Danai Primali, Maria Filini, Laertis Malkotsis, Michalis Kimonas, Marisha Triantaffyllidou, Fritz Fenne, Jakob Leo Stark, Fidel Talaboukas, Aris Armaganidis, Zoe Sigalou, Marina Siotou, Vassia Bakakou, Leonardos Batis, Glykeria Dimou, Andreas Stavrakakis, Nikos Chortarias

Learn more at https://www.nationalopera.gr/en/.

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