Berlin

Sharing loss may make you feel less lonely,like a warm embrace
Through eyes of different ages Julia 33 - a radio presenter- creates a website www.holdme.gr and invites people to share stories of loss

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Julia had a strange upbringing.
As a kid and mainly as a teenager she was exposed to several adventures trying to explore herself. A kid of divorced parents she often felt rejected and looked out for love. Her father died when she was 16. She looked out everywhere in almost everybody that could gain her trust or could offer her some tenderness. She learnt how to give in and offer herself to others.She expected to get love in return but instead she experienced feelings of fear and mistrust.At 33 Julia now a radio presenter creates a website and invites people to share stories of loss Many people respond Julia starts meeting with them and sharing their stories through the game of touch a game inspired by the surrealists ‘ecriture automatique’ games This is when her concert of emotions begins between loss,dreams,magic,cruelty and true affection Amongst the people that respond George sadly dies in after one year in a free fall in Bulgaria Few people were out there to take the risk to share and explore with Julia.She was sure that there was somebody out there .And she was rightA person from another country came and filled her life with hope.A film like a fairytale. The first Greek film that started from the internet and developed into a mixed genre film using real stories narrated by real people through the game of touch and the main fiction narrative

Comments from Georges Giannopoulos (RIFF) about the film
"I was overwhelmed by the invention of diluting the very personal experiences and narrative, that found a way to be heard through the lips of people unknown to each other in order to prove that finally all people hide the same things inside their souls.. The difference indeed proved the similarity!.
And then the film binds again in reverse material from broken souls while a dark scarf blinds the eyes very much like the darkness surrounding people’s loneliness..I was driven by these thoughts and the enormous sensitivity I was lost in the sublime artistic quality of the images by the incredible balance and exquisite harmony of colors I felt a kind of jealousy observing the complex camera movements. Finally despite my efforts I could not keep a distance from the tempest of the lovemaking scene in the train and the tender love scenes in the landscapes of South Rodos I could not avoid the melancholic feeling of the viewer of the incredibly beautiful naked bodies bound by love."
Georges Giannopoulos RIFF

Comments from Hans Schmidt: phototographer

A drop.A crystal drop.A life.Poetry never ends. With cruelty, it comes with wings of silver and henna, like a flash from a lost boat. It comes with the remains of the forgotten trees, comes as a magician pulling thunders out of our hearts. Simply, it walks in the rain with an umbrella made of a sun leaves; searching for a colour; a bright colour; a face: Your face! A poet steals the words from the opened windows; just like a crow! Searching in chained circles for a drop, a crystal drop, a life. Rain!Rain in us.Many drops, many crystals. A colour, all colours.So we can live many lives! Masoud Amralla Al Ali DIFF

After the screening I was left speechless by the beauty and the style and the content of the film Fotis Kaghellaris Dr Psychiatrist

The feeling the one gets out of Hold Me is enormously strong it looks very poetic and colourful
Georges Atzakas professor

I was surprised by the sadness and the beauty being so close to each other.I loved the blindfold scenes and was very touched by the woman talking with her hands. Katarina Peters film director

The music is very beautiful and the story is extremely moving. I have been caught in a web of loss this past year and, thus, the story touches me all the more. Stephen Lewis writer

As I was watching the film my personal stories came to the surface ,stories of loss I had long hidden in myself .I was diving into a beautiful oblivion full of strong emotions happy and devastating at the same time There were times I felt like crying and others I felt like smiling.Thank you for this generous film Myrsini Lenoudia teacher

As I woke up I sensed a strange fulfillment and as sleep disappeared gradually I could see clearly the journey you offered me so generously with the wings of the angel. I saw my ill sister standing on the surface of the sea and lifting her sick body with the help of these very wings She was a true angel I had forgotten how beautiful she was Thank you Elena Avgerinou social worker

Your film: A visual poem of life.
The visuals and imagery are strong. The music is also good and is integrated well. The characters seem more like archetypes than individuals - most of the dialog is like poetic narration - with great pieces of wisdom and deep reflection. And the sensuality is beautifully depicted. Even though the theme throughout was loss, I didn't feel the emotion of loss, The poetic narrative voice imposes a distance from the actual feeling of loss, but offers a journey through the landscape of loss and transforms loss into a deeper wisdom.The film is inspiring to me.
Hans Schmidt phototographer

HOLD ME Lucia Rikaki: the director’s note

"The idea of using the internet to share stories of loss came to me two years ago while I was developing a teaching method based on the ‘ecriture automatique’ concepts developed by the surrealists for the free expression of the subconscious in storytelling. I used this method now many years with actors in schools and in preparation of my theatre work...

My last (third) fiction I directed for the cinema was back in 1997 and since I have been doing one feature doc almost every year.

They have all been released theatrically and they evolved around social themes. I needed to move form my earlier storytelling into something more relevant and moving.

My experience with building the site for hold me my recent movie www.holdme.gr was very revealing sharing these stories with hundreds of people I did not know but felt so close to what I had in mind for the script. It took two year to develop the script and to communicate and filter these stories until early in 2005.

I started meeting with some of the writers that agreed to have their stories in the film and started shooting with them their stories using the concept if the game of touch as it was presented in the site from the very beginning.

The script was than completed after this first phase of the shooting was completed and integrated some of the stories. Happily some of them blended extremely well in the writing with the story of Julia as it was coming alive in the story I was writing...

An unfortunate event gave room to another strong subplot of the film One of the writers who have contributed stories to the web site died suddenly in a free fall in Bulgaria.

In the beginning this came as a very strong shock and halted my work until most of the other writers encouraged that we go on with the film and integrate George’s story.

We have now completed shooting the film HOLD ME in October 2005 and we are starting the editing phase.

Our approach when shooting but also now at the editing phase is to portray with strong visuals the highly moving story of Julia in connection with the shared stories. Often our narrative used the free interpretation of the subconscious as it could be perceived in images and free flow of thought.

Despite how this may sound some of our narrative preserves the linear form.

We are already testing some of our material in screenings with a variety of public and the common line is that the strong emotion is delivered avoiding melodramatic outbursts while keeping an impressive variety of strong visuals.

Despite the initial unusual concept the film seems to hook the viewer into an emotional and aesthetic journey."

Lucia Rikaki

HOLD ME the new film by Lucia Rikaki will show at EFM(check the website)
HOLD ME - KRATISE ME
14.02.2007 at 19.00
Parlament