Documentary Films
My Family and Me
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From the Greek series
by Colette Piault
color, 75 min, 1986
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Shot over four years, the film shows one specific aspect of migration: family relationships. Thanassakis, a 13-year-old boy, is staying with his grandparents in the Greek village of Ano Ravenia, while his parents stay with his younger brother in Zurich, Switzerland. It was filmed during three periods: winter in the village, summer in the village (while his parents, as most migrants, come back for the holidays), and Christmas in Zurich when the grandfather and the young boy visit their family. Because of the closeness which developed between the crew and the family, the documentary often resembles a fiction film; it attempts to understand the family relationships not through interviews but following and filming moments of daily life, showing their emotional family atmosphere. Only during the last shot does the filmmaker ask a question directly to a member of the family: Who is most important to the young boy – his father or grandfather? The father responds with unexpected precision.
Film Festivals, Screenings, Awards
Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, 1987
Jury Prize and Industrial Union Jury Prize, Festival of Sovietic Ethnographic Films, PSrnu, Estonia, 1988
Other films in the Greek Series:
Charcoal-Makers
Every Day is Not A Feast Day
A Hard Life
Let's Get Married
Thread of The Needle
