Portraits of a Crisis (working title)

7 stories outline the harsh reality of the last decade. Refugees, immigrants, coast guards, the army, volunteers, NGO’s, media, locals, politicians, and tourists waiting in limbo, trying to survive or just coexist on the border islands of Greece.

The eastern Greek islands define the borders between East and West, Europe and Asia. Set apart between worlds, they are places where people have come to retreat, rest, or even to escape from time altogether.

For the past five years Kos, Leros, and Lesvos, find themselves on the front line of one of the most defining humanitarian crises of recent times.

On any given beach in these parts, you might find tourists enjoying their summer vacations, or you might find a crowded boat full of people fleeing from war, grateful to have safely reached dry land. Thousands of people, waiting to be transferred to the mainland, aiming for Germany or any other central European utopia, while are still stuck in a borderland hotspot with an uncertain future.

Since 2015, a diverse and under-represented group of young filmmakers were invited to travel to the island of Patmos and participate in the 2016 Documentary Workshop. An inspired team from Greece, Bulgaria, Israel, Portugal, US, England, Afghanistan, Syria and Lithuania documented short portraits of the characters who found themselves involved in this revolving world. Each portrait traced a single part of a connecting thread:

• The story of the teacher who helps the refugees to fight their fears through poetry and literature, while they are stuck in transit at the mental Asylum of Leros for an identified time.
• The story of the Coast Guard heroes fighting with waves and life decisions to rescue thousands of people every day.
• The local fisherman of Kos who’s world has been invaded and he is refusing to help.
• The president of Leros Solidarity Network, who has fought Greek and EU bureaucracy and turned the mental asylum of Leros into a small exemplar center.
• The Muslim priest who is performing the burials of unknown drowned victims, in the impromptu graveyard.
• The Syrian refugee that almost drowned and now diving back into the sea taking swimming lessons in order to overcome her fears.
• A volunteer from Denmark, together with a Swiss NGO financed volunteers across Europe.

They are all swept up in the wave of immigration.

As the media fly home in search of new tragedies, we as filmmakers are focusing on the individual stories, their fears, their origins, what are they hoping for…where/what is home?

Your help is valuable to make these stories heard. If you are interested in joining the project, sponsoring or contributing in any way, please email films@suhi.co.uk