What was Athens in the interwar period like? Was it just a city divided between Venizelists and monarchists, or was it so many other things at once? The Asia Minor refugees in 1922 brought a new breath of life to the city, its culture and economy. Industry and shipping develops, a new bourgeoisie makes its presence felt, and at the same time a working class is created that demonstrates in the streets of Athens. Women begin to work and in the summers they swim in Paleo Faliro next to the men wearing swimsuits. Athens, which for the first time has a democratic constitution, is changing. Under the Acropolis, the Vrysaki district is demolished and the Ancient Agora emerges, while Omonia is modernised with an electric train. In art, the generation of the 1930s will forever change poetry, literature and painting. Venizelos, in his second creative four years, brings water to the city, builds schools, inaugurates the first airport.
Athenians sing Attik and Giannidis, while in the peripheral districts rebetika dominates. After the Crash of 1929, the return of the monarchy, the dictatorship of Metaxas and the beginning of the Greek-Italian War brought the end of this period. Maria Iliou and her collaborators tell the story of the interwar period in Athens with a fresh perspective and unseen visual material found in archives in America, Europe and Greece. The narratives, photographs, film clips, the sounds of the city designed by Aliki Panagi, the reconstruction of the music of the era and the original music of Katerina Polemi recreate the atmosphere of a very creative period, full of contrasts.
In Greek and English
SPONSORS
The Jaharis Family Foundation, The Hatsopoulos Foundation, Social and Cultural Affairs Welfare Foundation (KIKPE), The Pindaros Foundation, Anonymous sponsor
CO-PRODUCTION
Proteus & Proteus NY INC
