The film ‘Like Stone Lions in the Shadow of Night’, a unique documentary by the award-winning Swiss film director Olivier Zissou, was screened at the ANAPLASI Medical Rehabilitation Center in a special atmosphere of reverence and emotion, to a room packed with patients, attendants, and staff. “This film is not a historical film, it is not a classic documentary that explains the history of Makronissos, it is a film that tries to see this history through the poetry that many important poets wrote when they found themselves in exile on Makronissos. Olivier Zissou and I wanted as many people who desire and are able to see the film to see it,” said the director’s representative, Eleni Gioti, conveying his greetings and introducing the film.
Inaugurating the event, the Swiss Ambassador to our country Dr Lorentzo Amberg congratulated the President of ANAPLASI, neurosurgeon Dr Christos Georgopoulos, for his initiative to organize this event, describing the film as “impressive”, emphasizing that there is a direct correlation between “the indifference of the public, the diminished rights and the marginalization of the then political prisoners with the fate of today’s patients” and added: “Then and now, however, true works of art, such as the poetry of Yannis Ritsos and the film of Olivier Zissou, show us the path of hope.”
“Every people have their own Makronisi in their past history. We are not the ‘I’s, we are ‘We’. And We have to change this society. Through institutions like ANAPLASI, society can change. I have not found so much love anywhere as here at ANAPLASI, from doctors, nurses, and therapists. ANAPLASI is a Cultural institution. Such institutions should be built all over Greece…”, said the emotional Dionysis Georgatos, a patient in ANAPLASI, who was a key source during the research of the events and archives of the era by Olivier Zissouis and his assistant, Eleni Gioti, also responsible for literary research.
After the screening, the President of ANAPLASI, Dr. Christos Georgopoulos, declared: “The emotions and concerns that this film evoked in all of us tonight justify our choice to screen it within the environs of ANAPLASI, not only for Dionysis Georgatos, but also for all our other patients. Since our inception, our goal has been to keep hope on the right path. We brought cinema to ANAPLASI, just as we have brought Theater, Music, and Photography to help our patients overcome the physical barriers created by their physical disability, as well as the social barriers that a disabled Society places before them. We strengthen the participation of our patients in Culture, because it is part of their social reintegration, their claim to participate equally and with dignity in all activities of Life.”
