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317

The "317" feature documentary describes the massacres of the 1st Mountain Division of Wehrmacht in 16th of August 1943 in Kommeno Village.

“Retaliation” was the typical response of the German occupier against damages caused by the Greek partisan side to personnel or facilities of the occupational forces. But the case of Kommeno village, a few kilometers outside Arta in Greece, was much different. Those days, until August the 16th of 1943, when the holocaust of Kommeno happened, Greek resistance was not present or any German soldiers’ deaths were caused from partisans, neither from the village itself, nor from any neighboring villages. Based on the military rules, in order to obtain reprisal approval, especially in the area of Epirus, it had to pass through the Italian occupation forces that commanded Arta or Ioannina. But the Germans and the German regular Wehrmacht army never valued anyone or anything, by not obeying any rule except their blood-stained ideology and Hitler's principles.

The commander of the Wehrmacht 98th Mountain Regiment, Joseph Zalmiger, who belonged to the well-known for its blood-borne operations 1st Mountain Division, had camped in the area of Arta with the objective of hindering a possible invasion by the alliance forces on the Greek mainland coasts of Epirus. Colonel Joseph Zalmigker, a fanatic supporter of Fuhrer’s ideology, on August 12th, 1943, wanted himself to overview Arta’s south area, in order to ascertain what the conditions are and see if there is any hostile (resistance of partisan) power in the region. The road, by mistake, leads him to the main square of the Kommeno village and faces several gathered villagers arguing about food grant with partisans who had set their weapons by a water well located at one side of the square. In a panic, Zalmiger's driver makes a sudden turn to drive away from the village, but the car fell into a ditch. Some residents of the village rushed to help him uncover the car from the ditch and drive undisturbed back to Philipiada, a small town near Arta, where 98th Mountain Regiment had camped. Zalmiger himself never submitted to an investigating magistrate or a court of law, when and why he made the decision to destroy Kommeno. Most likely, he took this decision immediately after visiting the village because he saw the partisans and their guns by the water well and he assumed that the village of Kommeno was a base of rebels and partisans. He took this decision on his own initiative, as he used to, without asking and obtaining the approval of the Italian authorities.
Zalmiger assigned the operation to his existing commander of the 3rd Order, Major Reinhold Klembe who in turn conveyed it to the 12th Company of the Order, one of the harshest and bloody Companies of the Regiment, known for their massacres in the Balkans and later in Cephalonia, commanded by Lieutenant Williband Röser.

The 16 of August 1943 dawn finds the village of Kommeno burnt down and with almost all its inhabitants slaughtered; 317 non-combatants, regardless the gender or the age. Military vehicles of 12th Company returned late in the afternoon of the same day at their base, loaded with whatever they could plunder.
Until today, the German Justice system accepts that the act of the German massacre of Kommeno does not constitute a murder, but self-defense. This is why the German investigators do not consider it appropriate to press charges against any of the soldiers and officers of the 12th Company for their crimes in Kommeno. The mistakes of the Greek governments are many, over the years, one is enough to reflect, when they accepted the deposition of a non-eyewitness in the most important trial, the one of Nuremberg, ignoring the Greek survivors, those who lived the true events, were saved by a miracle and saw with their own eyes the Nazi’s atrocities.

Truths, pain and nightmarish memories bring the horror to their eyes again, through the survivors’ testimonies of the disaster, wondering if any of the Nazis has ever paid the price or has been punished for the abominable murders. Who? When? And How? The survivors always have a bitter smile on their lips and their eyes are screaming a mute terror, when memories become words.

  • Emmnanuel Mavros
    Director
    Ther Crack of Dawn, Angel From Above, Confession, The Beggar, Sonata
  • Emmnanuel Mavros
    Writer
    Ther Crack of Dawn, Angel From Above, Confession, The Beggar
  • Dimitris Vlahopanos
    Writer
  • Sofia Evagelinou
    Producer
    50yrs Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Nikos Kazantzakis, 21st of April, The fighting of Greeks, City Park, Shutter
  • Lazaros Agouras
    Producer
    50yrs Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Nikos Kazantzakis, 21st of April, The fighting of Greeks
  • Dimitris Evagelinos
    Producer
    50yrs Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Nikos Kazantzakis, 21st of April, The fighting of Greeks
  • Emmanuel G. Mavros
    Producer
    Ther Crack of Dawn, Angel From Above, Confession, The Beggar
  • Dimitris Vlahopanos
    Producer
  • Emmanuel Petris
    Edit
    Ther Crack of Dawn, Angel From Above, Confession, The Beggar, Taste the fire, Always Forever
  • Lazaros Agouras
    DoP
    50yrs Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Nikos Kazantzakis, 21st of April, The fighting of Greeks
  • Rena Santamouris
    Art Director - 3D Animations
  • Dimitris Evagelinos
    Music Composer
    50yrs Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, Nikos Kazantzakis, 21st of April, The fighting of Greeks
  • NIckos Panopoulos
    Key Cast
    "Narrator (voice)"
  • Magdalene Siozou
    Key Cast
    "Herself - Voice"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    317
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    war, histroy, crimes, drama
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 26 minutes 37 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 25, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    35,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Greece
  • Country of Filming:
    Greece
  • Language:
    Modern Greek (1453-)
  • Shooting Format:
    2K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.78
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Medellín International Film Festival
    Medellín
    Colombia
    February 16, 2020
    South America Premiere
    Official Selection
  • London Greek Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    May 13, 2020
    London Premiere
    Finalists
  • 7th International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra
    Ierapetra
    Greece
    August 1, 2020
    Greece Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Chania Film Festival
    Chania
    Greece
    August 2, 2020
    Official Selection
  • 14th FilmDoc Festival 2020
    Chalkida
    Greece
    November 26, 2020
    2nd Award for Best Feature
Director Biography - Emmnanuel Mavros

Emmanuel G. Mavros decided to be a producer/director since a very young age, when he saw Alain Delon's film "Pour la peau d'un flic" (also known as "For a Cop's Hide"). He studied Film and television production in Southbank University of London and took his Master of Arts degree at University of Patra, in Greek Civilization.

He started his career in 1997 at Alpha Television Network as a permanent producer/director in news department. He was responsible to provide creative input, working closely with the newscast producers and production crew. He was also responsible for clean technical creative execution of the overall look of the news stories. In 2000 he joined Alter Channel Network as Producer/Director and run 2 news documentary shows supporting a superstar host in Greece, Costas Hardavellas. The shows entitled "Gates of Unexplained" and " Invisible World" provided stories from ancient mystery themes, history, factual dramas and minority report issues. He was responsible to direct multi cameras in studio and filming with one camera in locations, to approve scripts, storyboarding each story and preparing graphics elements cooperating with graphics department and finally he recommending and directing talents and managing budgets, for all episodes. These 2 projects came to end in 2011 when Alter Channel Network has officially gone bankrupt after economical crisis in Greece.
In parallel from 2008 to 2011, he co-operated with Orama New Age production company as a freelancer creative director. This cooperation was the beginning of his acquaintance with the advertising industry. He there run 4 projects on behalf of Cartier, Public, Camel and the Mall Athens. He was the creative leader and supported the team of designers, artists, copywriters, sales teams and marketers to create production events or themed nights for a product or product sold.

In 2012, he signed a 5-years contract with IYQ Media Agency in Amman, Jordan. His position was Executive Director in TV Programming. His responsibilities were to buy television programs such as shows, dramas and movies and sell them with appropriate on air promotion to various Arabic television networks' clients. Unfortunately, in July of 2013 he was forced to give up the company for personal issues. The unexpected death of his father created several obligations in Greece, such as pending economic arrangements, family property arrangements etc, which did not allow him to stay in Amman.

In September 2013 he signed a one year contract with Crete Television Network in Greece, based in Iraklion city, as Creative Director consultant, in order to change the whole on air image. He was responsible to lead, inspire, motivate and manage a diverse team of creative's, producers and talents. He directed, designed, edited television live and tape programs, on-air promotion and social media campaigns. Conceptualized, produced, designed and supervised all promotional materials for clients, wanting to be advertised on Crete TV.

When his contract ended with the Crete TV, he signed a full time job at Expus ltd, a company outside of media industry. Expus is a trading and logistics company which deals with the wholesale of consumer electronics, pc gadgets and mobile accessories products. He signed as Creative director to support Advertising and Marketing department. His responsibilities was to shoot, design and produce creative elements for the company products. He executed promotional strategies in social media, VOD for YouTube and advertising prints to support and promote company products, including spots, ads, models and other initiatives. In addition he produced supporting material and design elements to help the sales department and helped the marketing team in copywriting.

He left Iraklion and Crete in 2016 and got back to Athens looking for a break in his career and a breath in order to research new artistic endeavors in stage theater and cinema that he love. He wrote two best-seller novel books in Greece and till today, he work on various projects as a freelancer film/TV/Stage director, creative personnel and producer.

From 2000 till today he produced and directed four short films, winning 3 awards in international film festivals, and directed two plays for famous stage theater in Athens, Greece. In parallel he cooperated with University of Patra and Akmi and Domi college as a lecturer of directing and screenwriting.

Now he is following faithfully the film and theatre industry, directing, producing, and writing projects.

Film & Stage Director:
“Confession” Athens/Greece 2013
“The Beggar” Athens/Greece 2013
Film Director/Executive Producer as a Freelancer at Emotion Art directing 7 docs and 6 Music video clips Athens/Greece 2009-2011
“When a dead Awaken” by Henrik Ibsen Athens/Greece 2004 Seasons
“Angel from Above” Athens/Greece 2005.
“The crack of Dawn” Athens/Greece 2002.
“Bury the Dead” by Irwin Show Athens/Greece 2001 Season

Awards:
2015 4th Bangalore Short film festival India
Nominated for Best film and Best Actress “Confession”
2005 Venice Circuito Off Festival in Italy
Award of Best Music and Best SFX, for the film “Angel from Above”
2004 Soho Intl Film Festival London-UK
Award of Best Script, for the film “The Crack of Dawn”
2004 5tn Indie Intl Film Festival in Salonica Greece
Award of Best Script, for the film “The Crack of Dawn”
Official Site: www.emmanuelmavros.com

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Director Statement

The word pain is very small in front of such a disaster.

Kommeno a little village from Arta in Greece, experienced barbarity at its horrific worst. It also paid for tragic mistakes made not only by the partisan fighters but also by the local village authorities and over the years the people of Kommeno village witnessed the irresponsibility of the political leadership.

The stories of these people shocked me.

The irresponsibility and indifference of a coordinated state and on the other hand the Nazi criminality had to be gathered in a material that the last survivors of the massacre need to make their last statement.

Truths, pain and nightmarish memories bring the horror to their eyes again, through the survivors’ testimonies of the disaster, wondering if any of the Nazis has ever paid the price or has been punished for the abominable murders. Who? When? And How? The survivors always have a bitter smile on their lips and their eyes are screaming a mute terror, when memories become words.

The main purpose of these film material is to give a final testimony, a final respect to our history and culture not only as European citizens but as wide word humanist will have to all these historical archive that collected in this film, to be the most valuable lesson, in order for the theory of humanism to become a wide act around the globe. And if this is a responsibility of all people around the world, then anyone can see how great the responsibility of the Europeans is, who are the heirs of the enlightenment, renaissance and humanism movements.

Emmanuel G. Mavros
Film Director - Producer - Writer