13/05/2005

Pantélis Voulgaris, the International Thessaloniki Film Festival’s new president has just resigned from his position on last Thursday saying that any ambition, any bitterness can justify the international denigration of the Festival and the country and the painful campaign which undermines the institution".

His appointment as the head of the International Thessaloniki Film Festival last March caused dissatisfaction within the Greek and international film environment which actually rebelled against the dismissal of the president of the festival, Théo Angélopoulos, a skilled ambassador for the Greek Cinema and that of his manager, Michel Démopoulos. Producer Despina Mouzakis is now standing in for him. The animated critics of the persons involved and all the protests in the Greek culture environment were internationally petitioned on the Internet which more or less 500 persons signed.

Famous names such as Nanni Moretti, Abbas Kiarostami, Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Nagisa Oshima, Otar Iosseliani, Béla Tarr, Bernardo Bertolucci, Costa-Gavras, but also Serge Toubiana (director of the French National Film Archives) and Dominique Paini (director of the Centre Pompidou), emphasized Michel Démopoulos’s responsibility concerning the event’s success. Together with Théo Angélopoulos, they created this annual festival "an independent area, very attentive to the lively and innovative forces of the young and global cinema". Warning Greece against a "racist backlash" in its film policy, they denounced a decision which had an effect of "looking back on the past while being an ideological recovery, which is extremely worrying for every European creator".

Pantélis Voulgaris, (Les fiançailles d'Anna, Happy day, Les années de pierre), who is considered in Greece as the second national filmmaker after Théo Angelopoulos, directed last year Les Mariées, co-produced with Martin Scorsese and which registered almost 800.000 admissions in Greece. In spite of his reputation, his recent successes and his political and social commitment which make him a left-wing filmmaker, people were still protesting.

(Translated from French)