Christos Passalis and Sylla Tzoumerkas’ film The City and the City will have its world premiere at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival

ΤΗΕ CITY AND THE CITY
Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas’ 
feature film will have its world premiere at the 
Encounters competition of the 72nd Berlinale  

Christos Passalis and Sylla Tzoumerkas’ feature film The City and the City, one of the most remarkable productions of the Greek National Opera’s tribute to the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution of 1821, in co-production with Homemade Films and in collaboration with the Thessaloniki Film Festival, will have its world premiere at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (10-20 February 2022) and the official competition section Encounters.  The film narrates in six chapters, a prologue and an epilogue, seven decades of Thessaloniki’s history and the life and perils of its Jewish community.  

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]

The Artistic Director of the Greek National Opera, Giorgos Koumendakis, notes: “We are happy that the film The City and the City has entered the Competition Section Encounters of the Berlin International Film Festival. I would like to congratulate its creators, Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas, for taking the first and very important step in building this film’s international trajectory, namely its entry in this year’s Berlinale. The City and the City is one of the most noteworthy commissions of the Greek National Opera’s tribute to the Greek Revolution of 1821, which was made possible thanks to a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, in the context of our collaboration with the Thessaloniki Film Festival and in co-production with Homemade Films. We wish that this film should receive the international acclaim it deserves.”

Christos Passalis (blitz theatre group, Luzerner theater, etc.) and Syllas Tzoumerkas (Homeland, A Blast, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea), return creatively to their birthtown, co-directing a film that is sharp as a knife and blurs the lines between fiction, documentary and essay film. 

THE CITY AND THE CITY is a co-production of the Greek National Opera and Homemade Films, with the collaboration of Thessaloniki International Film Festival, supported by the Claims Conference - the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Greek-German Fund for the Future, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - Office in Greece, ΕΚΟΜΕ, the Cultural Centre of the Region of Central Macedonia, MOMus, Greek Film Centre and the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. It was produced by Maria Drandaki and curated by Orestis Andreadakis.

Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas note: “Two cities co-exist within the same frame: the city of Thessaloniki of the previous century, and the city of Thessaloniki as it is today. Time and space converge in a strange, enigmatic way. Thus, two currents are formed: the first, is the modern, everyday one. The other is based on the real experience and the hard facts of a ldeeply buried, silenced era — an era that left behind open wounds, but also the traces of a lost Eden. The two currents meet and converge in the cracks — like in a dream.”  

Christos Passalis

Christos Passalis was born in 1978 in Thessaloniki, Greece. As an actor in cinema, he participated in Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth (2009), Syllas Tzoumerkas’ Homeland (2010) and The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea (2019), Vardis Marinakis’ Black Field (2010) and Fiona Tan’s History’s Future (2014) ). In theatre, he co-founded the blitz theatre group (2004-2019), writing, directing and acting in all the group’s performances (Théâtre de la Ville, the Schaubühne, the Festival d’ Avignon, and various other major theatres and theatre festivals around the world). Since 2019, he co-directs with Angeliki Papoulia at the Luzerner theater in Switzerland, and other venues. His upcoming feature film, Silence 6-9, is currently in post-production.

Syllas Tzoumerkas

Syllas Tzoumerkas was born in 1978 in Thessaloniki, Greece. His feature debut, Homeland, had its world premiere at the Venice Critics’ Week in 2010. His sophomore, A Blast, premiered in competition at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2014 and his third, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, at the Berlinale Panorama in 2019. Ιnternationally acclaimed for their distinctive style, bold characterization and strong performances, Tzoumerkas' films have participated in over 200 festivals around the world and have been distributed to theatres and streaming platforms in many countries. Apart from his theatrical and multi-platform works, he co-wrote the scripts of Argyris Papadimitropoulos’ feature Suntan (2016), and Ahmed Ghossein’s All This Victory (2019). He co- curates with fellow director Elina Psykou, Motherland, I See You, the moving festival and restoration program of the Hellenic Film Academy.

Founding Donor to the Alternative Stage & the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution