THE CITY AND THE CITY [ co-direction with Christos Passalis ]
Berlinale, Encounters – 2022
The untold story of the life and perils of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, in six chapters. The past and the present of a city, meet and converge at its cracks.
written and directed by: Christos Passalis, Syllas Tzoumerkas. producer: Maria Drandaki. curator: Orestis Andreadakis. executive producers: Christos Passalis, Syllas Tzoumerkas. director of photography: Simos Sarketzis. editor: Yorgos Zafiris. production designer: Christos Passalis. costume design: Marli Aliferi, Vassilia Rozana. sound: Nikos Exarchos, Dimitris Kanellopoulos, Persefoni Miliou, Costas Varybopiotis . hair and make-up designers: Evi Zafiropoulou, Ioulia Sygrimi. VFX design supervisor: Pantelis Anastasiadis. 1st assistant director: Miltos Ntzounis. 2nd assistant director: Vasia Attarian.production managers: Yannis Karadanis, Yorgos Zervas. casting (Thessaloniki), assistants to the directors: Pelagia Chatzinikita, Lia Keramari, Nikos Kolioukos, Alexandra Riba.
With: Vassilis Kanakis, Alexandros Vardaxoglou, Angeliki Papoulia, Argyris Xafis, Niki Papandreou, Vassilis Karaboulas, Themis Bazaka, Maria Filini, Laertis Malkotsis, Fritz Fenne, Jakob Leo Stark, Marisha Triantafyllidou, Fidel Talaboukas, Aris Armaganidis, Zoi Sigalou, Marina Siotou, Danai Primali, Andronikos Christaras, Michalis Kimonas, Vasia Bakakou, Nikos Chortarias, Andreas Stavrakakis, etc.
Production: Greek National Opera, Homemade Films
with the collaboration of: Thessaloniki International Film Festival
with the support of: Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), Claims Conference, Deutsch-Griechischen Zukunftsfonds, Rosa Luxembourg Stiftung, EKOME, Cultural Centre of the Region of Central Macedonia, MOM-us, Greek Film Centre, Jewish Community of Thessaloniki
World sales:Syndicado Film Sales
Distribution / Streaming: Weird Wave (Greece)
World premiere: 72nd Berlin International Film Festival – Encounters Official Competition
Festivals / Awards: Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2022 (Special Screening – National Premiere), New Directors / New Films 2022 by MoMA and Film at Lincoln Center (North-American premiere), JXJ – Washington DC Jewish Film and Music Festival 2022, Crossing Europe 2022, LAGFF 2022, Dokufest Prizren 2022, Zerkalo IFF 2022, Linea d’Ombra IFF 2022, etc.
Η Πόλη και η Πόλη, 2022, dcp, 87'
Reviews:
“An absorbing and appropriately disturbing indictment of man’s inhumanity to man. (…) A heartfelt, sorrowful and elegiac love-letter to Thessaloniki, which before the Second World War was a dazzlingly polyglot cosmopolis.”
-Neil Young, Screen Daily
“The genius in The City and the City is the seemingly nonchalant and subtle amalgamation of the past and the present. The two cities in the name of the film refer to one singular Thessaloniki. It is the time that creates the duality, and not the space.Passalis and Tzoumerkas employ an ingenious technique here.”
-Suvo Pyne, High on Films
“***** – The creative choices employed by co-directors Syllas Tzoumerkas and Christos Passalis have led to a non-traditional war film that feels quite radical in the most beguiling way.”
-Oliver Johnston – The Upcoming
“****1/2 – Cinematically brilliant and thematically relevant”
-Meredith Taylor – FilmUforia
“*** – In this unsettling mea culpa, the Jewish community’s loss and fear are palpable.”
-Alex Goldstein – One Room With A View
“****1/2 – A grim poem”
Marc Van den Klashorst – ICS
“A fragmented ode to the city of Thessaloniki. Only the city as a collective entity bears witness to the full extent of what happened, spilling over onto the present and generating a sense of urban memory and sorrow.”
-Tommaso Tocci – Montages International Edition
