Land, Legacy & Loss: Greek Cinema and the Environment

29 Apr 2025
06:30pm - 08:30pm
$5 - $10
The Capitol
113 Swanston Street, Melbourne

Book Tickets

RMIT's The Best Films You've Never Seen series presents 'Land, Legacy & Loss: Contemporary Greek Cinema and Environmental Crisis', a very special screening event exploring contemporary Greek cinema's engagement with environmental crisis and the tensions between tradition and progress.

Georgis Grigorakis' neo-Western 'Digger' (2020) takes us deep into the forests of Northern Greece, where a solitary farmer named Nikitas is fighting an industrial mining corporation causing environmental destruction as it encroaches on his property. In the midst of this battle, Nikitas' estranged son returns after 20 years. 'Digger' was winner of the Berlinale's CICAE Art Cinema Award in 2020 and, in the same year, featured in the Melbourne International Film Festival program that shifted online. This screening will be an opportunity for film lovers and Hellenophiles to see this work on the big screen, where Giorgos Karvelas' stunning and immersive cinematography shines.

Screening alongside Grigorakis' feature is Lia Tsalta's 2018 short 'The Forest', which invites us to experience a dystopian future where nature no longer exists. In this surreal take on environmental crisis, tourists visit a theme park to witness the last remaining species of plant and bird life.

Curated by RMIT's Alexia Kannas in collaboration with Athens-based curator and scholar Geli Mademli (Thessaloniki Film Festival; Syros Film Festival), this unique program explores how contemporary Greek cinema negotiates the tension between economic growth and environmental preservation, and engages with the pressures exerted by resource extraction, gentrification and tourism.

Join us for this celebration of Greece's bold and visually arresting cinema, brought to you by RMIT Cinema Studies and RMIT Culture in partnership with Neos Kosmos. Supported by Environmental Films Australia.

Digger

Language: Greek (English subtitles) Country: Greece /France
Year: 2020
Duration: 101 mins
Format: DCP

The Forest

Language: Greek (English subtitles) Country: Greece
Year: 2018
Duration: 18 mins
Format: DCP

Image credit: Film Still from 'Digger', courtesy The Match Factory.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Indigenous cultures

Land, Legacy & Loss: Greek Cinema and the Environment