In the final chapter, the author focuses on the most recent efforts by Greek filmmakers to direct attention to the ongoing refugee crisis. In particular, 4.1 Miles (2016) and Summer on the Island of Good (2009), exhibited online , deal head-on with the plight of refugees in Greece and en route to Europe and simultaneously reveal the indifference of the European community and the difficulties that Greece faces in managing the situation amidst its financial crisis. In addition, Golden Dawn: a Personal Affair/Xrysi Avgi:Prosopiki Ypothesi (2016) sheds light on the alarmingly growing popularity of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn which has spearheaded a racist rhetoric and attacks on refugees. The discussion thus focuses on cinema as a means towards raising awareness, to politically engage with endemic xenophobia and to challenge cultural perceptions. Ultimately, this chapter aims to show the potential of Greek cinema to document the plight of refugees in a manner that mainstream media and the political establishment overlook.
Amongst the diverse populations migrating to Greece in the 1990s were also thousands of so-called ‘co-ethnic’ Orthodox Greeks from Southern Albania and the Black Sea Region (also known as the Pontic region) who were summoned back to their alleged homeland. Three films have dealt with the agenda of repatriation and its problematic ideological background: From the Snow/Ap to Hioni (1993), From the Edge of the City/Ap tin Akri tis Polis (1998) and Xenia (2014) expose the essentialisms of national identity, evoking simultaneously the bewilderment of co-ethnics, who were ultimately welcomed as strangers, and their struggles to assimilate. Despite many differences in form, all three films put the very notion of repatriation to the test and tackle head-on patriarchal discourses that figured prominently in the country’s nationalist program. The author thus maintains a focus on the potential of Greek immigration films to radically screen repatriation and to forge an inclusive definition of Greekness.
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