The City and the City

Synopsis

The untold story of the life and perils of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, in six chapters. The past and the present of a city, meet and converge at its cracks.

About the Co-Directors

Christos Passalis was born (1978) in Thessaloniki, Greece. As an actor in cinema, he participated in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth (2009), Syllas Tzoumerkas’ Homeland (2010) and The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea (2019), Vardis Marinakis’ Black Field (2010) and Fiona Tan’s History’s Future (2014).

In theatre, he co-founded the blitz theatre group (2004-2019), writing, directing and acting in all the group’s performances (Théâtre de la Ville, the Schaubühne, the Festival d’ Avignon, and various other major theatres and theatre festivals around the world). Since 2019, he co-directs with Angeliki Papoulia at the Luzerner theater in Switzerland, and other venues.

His upcoming feature film, Silence 6-9, is currently in post-production.

Syllas Tzoumerkas was born (1978) in Thessaloniki, Greece. His feature debut, Homeland, had its world premiere at the Venice Critics’ Week (2010). His sophomore, A Blast, premiered in competition at the Locarno International Film Festival (2014) and his third, The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea, at the Berlinale Panorama (2019). Ιnternationally acclaimed for their distinctive style, bold characterization and strong performances,

Tzoumerkas’ films have participated in over 200 festivals around the world and have been distributed to theatres and streaming platforms in many countries.

Apart from his theatrical and multi-platform works, he co-wrote the scripts of Argyris Papadimitropoulos’ feature Suntan (2016), and Ahmed Ghossein’s All This Victory (2019). He co-curates with fellow director Elina Psykou, Motherland, I See You, the moving festival and restoration program of the Hellenic Film Academy.

FILMOGRAPHY

2019 To Thávma tis Thálassas ton Sargassón [ The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea ] 2014 A Blast

2010 Hóra Proélefsis [ Homeland ]

Artists’ Statement

The City and the City juxtaposes visually and narratively the horrors that the Jewish community of Thessaloniki went through during the 20th century, to the contemporary experience of a town that violently and irrevocably lost its multi-cultural character and quality, almost overnight. A city that has suffered a lot and committed many sins; our birthtown.

Two lines run through the film. Τhe first is Thessaloniki’s everyday life as it is today; the other, the line of the ghosts, the line of the brutally perished Jewish community.

The two lines, the contemporary one and the dreamy one, co-exist in the frame throughout the film, creating a dialogue that is unseizing, intense and enigmatic. The City and the City re-imagines and re-tells a city’s history and geography as a luminous dream space of atrocity, where its hidden crimes (past and current) and its once-largest community’s perils are exposed for the first time in film.

—Christos Passalis, Syllas Tzoumerkas

Festivals, Screenings, & Awards