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1.000m² of time

Looking into a plot of 1,000 sq.m. in Geraki, Laconia, a village of Southern Greece, an international team of archaeologists has been constructing the distant past of the acropolis of Ancient Geronthrai. The excavation at Dontakia - as the locals call the acropolis - began in 1995 by the University of Amsterdam and the Dutch Institute at Athens. Finds dating to many different eras, from the Late Neolithic to the Greek Civil War, are mere fragments of everyday life. How difficult is it to connect pieces from a reality that has been lost, from a society that has no written sources left? How is the daily life of "people without history" being reconstructed, and how is people's relationship with their past being formed? For all these years, researchers have been working every summer for a six-week period in their excavation pit and their study room, observing and being observed by the local community of Geraki. Yet, it seems that archaeology is not only a matter of dealing with ancient remains ― archaeology has an actual impact on people's lives. Between olive trees and stones, in these harsh landscapes of the Southern Mediterranean, archaeologists along with the people of Geraki add their own layer of time to the eternal quest for understanding the past.

  • Maro Anastopoulou
    Director
    "Whispers of the sky"
  • Maro Anastopoulou
    Writer
    "Whispers of the sky"
  • Lilette Botassi
    Producer
    The King, Hostage, Egg, Agon, The Island of Secrets, Bells, Threads & Miracles, Food for Love, Holy Boom, Entwined
  • Kostas Matikas
    DOP
  • Yannis Antipas
    Sound
  • George Charisis
    Film Editor
  • Dimitris Korontzis
    Original Music
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    1.000 τ.μ. χρόνου
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    History, Culture, Environment
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 29 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 31, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    221 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Greece
  • Country of Filming:
    Greece
  • Language:
    English, Modern Greek (1453-)
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Maro Anastopoulou

Studied direction in Athens, worked at short films and at private television as an assistant director and script supervisor. She has worked for research and direction of several documentary television programs for Greek public TV network. Recently she was awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics Fipresci at the 18th International Documentary Film Festival in Thessaloniki as well as with Best Director's and Best Feauture Awards at the 5th International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra for her first full-length documentary “Whispers of the Sky”. She has just finished working on her second full-length documentary, which title is “1.000m² of time

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Director Statement

My first full-length film “Whispers of the Sky” is an observational documentary that was filmed in Amorgos - a rather barren island of the Aegean Sea – having as main characters a captain and a shepherd. Revealing the time elements that are hiding in the daily routine of locals is a subject that interests me in this film and in future ones.
I just finished my second full-length documentary film, titled “1000m² of time”. Its main subject is the connection between an international archaeological team that leads an excavation at a village in Laconia and the inhabitants of the village. Focusing on trivial day-to-day things and not just what might seem like an apparently insignificant archaeological excavation, I aim to pose questions and to light the spark for a deeper search. Without wishing to make any universal conclusions, I am mainly interested in a possible philosophical, even political comment that a documentary film can create on life itself. The ability to explore the multiple cinematic ways I can use for telling the stories I want to share with the audience can be more than a magical process. For me, the act of filming the real world goes beyond its time, goes beyond that "now" and enters the realm of timeless and thus destroying the trivial.