SCHEDULE
Hold tight! Our Open Call for short documentary films has now closed. We are currently reviewing submissions as we shape the 2026 edition programme of DOTS Festival, filled with powerful stories!
Elysian Fields | Anna-Maria Dutoit | Greece, Germany 2025 • 27:57
Strong winds brush through drought-stricken trees in the ancient olive grove near Delphi, reminding of the wildfires that are engulfing the country every summer. Among the trees, a family of olive farmers struggles to recover from past flames and a persistent lack of water. Named after the paradise in ancient Greek myth, ELYSIAN FIELDS explores landscapes of both devastation and hope, in search of the strength to begin again.
Palace on Mount Grammos | Filippa Tsiara | Greece, 2026 • 15:58
In an isolated mountainous region of Greece, a couple lives with simplicity and purpose, far from the fast pace of the modern world. The documentary explores love, companionship, survival, and a way of life that is slowly fading away, set against landscapes of wild natural beauty.
The Wedding of the Pirs | Yalçın Çiftçi | Türkiye, 2025 • 20:00
The Gorani Kurds living in the Hawraman region of Iran continue to keep a millennium-old tradition alive today. Every winter, the people gather to commemorate Pir Shaliyar, who lived in the village of Uraman Taht in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, and ritually re-enact his legendary wedding. Inspired by the region's deep-rooted culture, this ceremony, interwoven with prayers and dhikr, is repeated annually as a spiritual journey that has survived through the ages.
The Landscape of Human Essence | Jana Hunterová | Czech Republic, North Macedonia, United Kingdom, 2024 • 13:08
Set in a remote Macedonian mountain village with only seven inhabitants, The Landscape of Human Essence follows 80-year-old Ljubica as she lives in harmony with nature—gathering herbs, tending goats, and enduring solitude, wolves, and harsh conditions. Blending raw documentary with poetic animation, the film captures resilience, memory, and the enduring bond between people and the land they call home.
Prikosymphono | Elena Gazi, Dolan Bailey, Alejandra Diaz, Leonardo Dal Fabbro | Greece, 2024 • 4:56
Placed in Lefkada, an island in the Ionian Sea, a little girl finds a paper from 1955, that contains a list of objects that belonged to her great aunt and proceeds to ask her grandfather about it. He explains to her that this is the list of her dowry, an old Greek tradition, in which the bride's possessions were concede to the groom as a formal marriage agreement. Moved by this finding, he starts recalling memories of his childhood, witnessing his older sister Armenia, having an arranged marriage and leaving behind her family and the island for a better future.
Beware of the Southern Stars | Christos Karteris | Greece, 2025 • 26:23
Master Kostas, continuing the naval tradition of his homeland and family as a ship engineer, spent years sailing across the vast oceans. Now, forced into retirement on land, with the marks of time weighing heavily upon him, he lives amidst his memories and the singing of his canaries. With eyes still filled with the salt of the sea, he waits for the ocean to call him once again, on a final voyage.
Haliotis | Anastasia Koutsonanou | Greece, 2024 • 10:00
As the waves carry her to unfamiliar shores, a mermaid finds herself stranded among humans, far from her aquatic sanctuary. A forgotten childhood memory, born from the imaginative escapism of a little girl longing to flee reality.
Love in the time of my Grandma | Zoi Stavridi Michalopoulou | Greece, 2024 • 29:56
How did women of a not so distant generation experience love - both the romantic and physical dimension of it? Through their narration, silences, glances and their gestures, this documentary explores some of the facets which made up the world of our grandmothers.
Suicide Thoughts | Georgios Poulopoulos | Greece, 2024 • 05:09
In the heart of Athens, at Vathis Square, passersby, idlers, falafel shop workers, people waiting for the municipal soup kitchen, and journalists react to a Palestinian man's suicide attempt.
Sonny | Rufio Stgeorge | United States, 2024 • 20:43
After the unexpected death of his estranged father Sonny, Rufio St.George spends a 16 hour journey to the Philippines reflecting on their troubled relationship.
After the water | Davide Marchesi | Italy, 2025 • 23:00
Through a poetic lens, After the Water explores the lived experiences of migrants stranded on the Greek island of Lesvos, as well as the political, historical, and environmental stratifications of the territory. The film’s narrative unfolds around a series of swimming lessons offered to refugee youth, framing the story through gestures of movement, breath, and resistance, where learning becomes a subtle form of reclaiming space and dignity.
Between a rock and a hard place | Thanos Liberopoulos | Greece, 2024 • 17:48
A small class of Afghan children in a refugee school in Athens, Greece will take a stand as the Taliban rise in power in their country. Are their voices loud enough to draw the world’s attention or will their families and friends face the dangers of this brutal regime?
Closed doors day | Sofia Keler | Russian Federation, 2025 • 23:00
The film tells about the life of a group of schoolchildren. About their life, entertainment, routine , which they invent for themselves in a practically completely deserted village. There is only one hope: either the village will start functioning again, or all the young people will leave for big cities.
A Whisper I Hear | Aleksa Bujisic | Montenegro, 2025 • 13:09
Slavka lives in a house beneath the hill. During winter, her mother Miluša stays with her. She takes care of her, cooks, dresses her, helps her. She deals with insomnia by keeping herself busy with housework and small daily tasks. She gives insomnia space to live. When she sits down, the silence bothers her. In the workshop where her husband used to work, besides the empty space and dust-covered machines, there are piles of coal and firewood. She goes down to collect them. Sometimes she starts the machine, just to hear the sound. She chops the wood into small pieces on it. At night, she lies down, but soon enough, another morning arrives, another day that never seems to end.
In Bethlehem beyond | Kallirroi Kostikoglou | Greece, 2024 • 20:25
In the documentary “IN BETHLEHEM BEYOND" by Kallirroi Kostikoglou, we meet two women whose hard work and experience gradually lead us to the reappropriation of an everyday but at the same time deliberately unseen topic. Death is constantly present. Soil, the last bastion between life and death, is passed entirely through the hands of Ms. Yota and Ms. Labrini. The daily contact with it, in a way that ultimately transcends the boundaries of both ritual and work, accompany us on our journey of getting to know this Other City that for more than a decade they build and destroy outside the boundaries of the urban fabric of Agrinio, a provincial city in the Balkan South. They dig, they drill the marble, they use jackhammers to soften the soil. They wake up the predominantly asleep. Their work, the last task for the dead that is now gone, a post uncomfortable yet extremely important because without them the dead will not be buried and their story will not end. A documentary about how the dead and the living coexist and how death breathes in us.
In Zhainab's Heaven | Ali Mehdi | Pakistan, 2023 • 25:00
The film follows the stories of a gravestone maker, a little grave washer and a man who lost his limb. These three characters embody three generations of Hazaras who have tamed death as part of their daily life and activities and have normalized a graveyard as a place where they mourn and celebrate, live and die.
Saturday 3/10 | Masterclass | Documentary doesn't describe. It reveals.
13:00 | Free Entrance
Participation in the masterclass will be strictly on a first-come, first-served basis at the venue.
Eva Stefani | Director
Documentary belongs to the realm of poetry. Potentially, it can reveal what is visible without describing it. Through film examples, we will explore the differences between a documentary that focuses on covering an event and one that interprets and reshapes reality through the filmmaker's gaze.
Pick a lot win a lot | Konstantinos Merentitis | Greece, 2024 • 26:05
In this hybrid film, I followed Nektarios for a day, capturing his unique rhythm and persistence. What began as a mockumentary transformed into an honest exploration of a man surviving a fast-changing city. Through Nektarios, the film highlights overlooked, real moments, proving that behind every passerby lies an unknown, profound world deserving to be seen.
Before the meal got cold | Alkistis Kafetzi | Greece, 2025 • 17:42
A short observational documentary that, through the simple, everyday routine of a family gathering, unfolds the story of a woman who lived against the social norms of gender and her time — independent, contradictory, and bold. A portrait that emerges through the silences, conversations, and subtle tensions of a family meal.
Wired | Anna Maria Parcharidou | Greece, 2026 • 9:47
Simos, a professional sound recordist, explores the soundscapes of Thessaloniki. A past trip to Ghana triggers a blend of Greece’s daily acoustic reality with the sounds of Africa. Moving through urban and natural landscapes, we follow an associative journey based on pure listening, where the realistic recording of sound ultimately reveals an unexpected, inherent poetry.
Housing problem | Marko Plejić | Croatia, 2026 • 14:45
A short hybrid documentary about Dujo, a student who must quickly find a new place to live after being abruptly evicted by his landlord, all while trying to continue his studies in the city. Through a blend of staged scenes and real-life interactions, filmed by the protagonist, the film deals with the sharp rise of rent prices in Croatia's capital.
Alles Gut | Pavlos Paraskevopoulos | Greece, 2024 • 25:00
Pavlos, travels to a quiet village in Northern Greece to visit his grandmother. He films her with a camera, while she prepares for him his favorite meals. Both grappling with loneliness in their own ways, they open up like they never had before. In the warmth of his grandmother’s embrace, Pavlos gets to feel a long-awaited sense of acceptance.
Behind the shadows | Konstantinos Potamianos | China, Greece, 2025 • 12:59
A cultural bridge between a shadow puppeteer from Greece and one from China, where shadow puppetry is believed to have originated over 2,000 years ago. The director’s childhood memories inspired the film, which was made to explore the routes of Greek shadow puppetry.
The story of an illegal Excavation | Michalis Giannakakis | Greece, 2025 • 23:42
Giorgos Fygetakis narrates the story of the illegal excavation in Agios Georgios, Sitia, in the late 1960s.
Even iron rusts and breaks, but man remains | Jana Švarc | Serbia, 2025 • 12:32
The accordion echoes across the fields and springs while Jordanka walks with her dogs. She does not cry when she wants to and she does not laugh when she wants to - because that’s all she knows.
A Winter's Return | Stratis Alvanos | Greece, 2025 • 11:41
A return to the village during Christmas becomes an opportunity for a quiet journey of memory and rediscovery in the snowy landscape. Amidst the peaceful images of the village, the warmth of the local café, and the voices of children, this personal documentary explores themes of return, family, and the search for belonging.
Hadetia - Α Cartography of Sound: The Itinerary of Bells in Drama | Nikoleta Laskidou, Theodora Eustathopoulou | Greece, 2025 • 5:17
Hadetia (customs) explores the acoustic landscape of bell rituals in Drama, Northern Greece and invites the viewers into a space where the resonant bells dominate the area. Acting as a sensory mediation between sound, place and time, it reveals a connection of cultural continuity and collective memory.
Bontle | Marie Ruwet | Belgium, 2024 • 21:00
Bontle tells the story of Marie, a young woman marked by her time in Soweto, where the beauty of adventure collapses in the face of trauma. Supported by a group of local skaters, she embarks on a healing journey that will carry her far beyond Africa. Four years later, she returns to these lands to confront her past and find inner peace.
*Caution: Includes potentially distressing material, such as violence or trauma.
We Were No Desert | Agustina Comedi, Chiachio & Giannone | Argentina, 2024 • 13:00
Born from an installation by Argentine textile artists Chiachio & Giannone, this film challenges the choreography of the “Pericón,” the national folk dance, to question the portrayal of a homeland projected as white, binary, and civilized.
Ademi | Zhamilya Sakhari | Germany, 2025 • 20:00
ADEMI is the story of Ali, a drag artist who finds freedom on stage and his mother, who stands by his side despite inner conflicts and the continuing severe social repression in Kazakhstan.
Romanticism | Raphaël Delorme-Duc, Max Bédrune | Belgium, 2025 • 12:57
A long journey to Galicia becomes the setting for intimate exchanges between a grandmother and a young couple, where memories, questions about love, and the family legacy of past generations intertwine.
Bury Me تقبرني | Mariana Rosteck | Greece, Lebanon, United Kingdom, 2025 • 18:54
Three generations of Lebanese women spend a summer together reminiscing in their family home in Greece. Following the eldest granddaughter’s Greek Orthodox wedding, they commemorate parts of their identities through re-interpreted and performed renditions of key memories, delving into the hopes, yearning and guilt surrounding their Lebanese heritage.
AYG [Dawn] | Arnold Ghazaryan, Siranush Vardanyan, Maria Matinyan | Armenia, 2025 • 20:22
AYG [Dawn] follows teenagers Arman and Nver—childhood friends from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) whose lives were forever changed by war and forced displacement. As they rebuild their futures in unfamiliar villages across Armenia, their friendship remains a powerful source of strength and connection, despite distance, loss, and uncertainty.
Echo from the edge | Jo Alice Kimmy | Poland, United Kingdom, 2026 • 17:32
It is a poetic/essay documentary composed from quiet, atmospheric images of the Białowieża Forest and the militarised Polish- Belarusian border, woven together with an immersive soundscape. Through the landscape, the voice of an Afghan man reflects on his attempted crossing, his story echoing through the forest itself. The film gently invites viewers to step into a space where beauty and brutality coexist.
Sunday 4/10 | Masterclass | Seeing Differently: The Cinematic Language of Bugboy.
13:00 | Free Entrance
Participation in the masterclass will be strictly on a first-come, first-served basis at the venue.
Lucas Paleocrassas - Director
Carlos Muñoz - Director of Photography
In this masterclass, the director and director of photography will jointly share the creative process and experience of shooting an observational documentary that took three years to make.
A story in 14 words | Eirini Steirou | Greece, 2020 • 11:50
In this hybrid first person account, a Greek islander opens up to his filmmaker granddaughter about his violent coming-‐of-‐age as a refugee, warrior and political prisoner in North Africa during WWII. An experimental representation of personal war memory that combines home movie and archival footage.
Simply Divine | Mélody Boulissière, Bogdan Stamatin | Romania, 2025 • 14:07
1939, Romania. A soldier follows a young woman. Their love story begins. The soldier is called to the front and their love fades into the war.
Collective Memory | Cristina Colmenares | Colombia, Peru, 2025 • 14:59
In 1983, during the darkest days of Peru’s Armed Conflict with the Shining Path, masked soldiers entered Adelina’s home and took her husband away. She would never see him again. After facing silence and contempt from the Police and Army, Adelina joins forces with the many other women who have lost their husbands and children to soldiers who were supposed to protect them. Together, they will unite to demand justice.
Dying for Europe | Nikos Pilos | Greece, 2017 • 17:12
The largest migratory flow recorded in history since World War II is revealed through fragments of personal stories. The heartrending trilogy focuses on the strength and hope of those who dare to dream a better life in Europe and are willing to even give their lives for a ‘new’ life.
6657 | Ana Bizjak | Slovenia, 2025 • 11:52
The documentary film portrays the everyday life inside a dairy cow barn. At the center of the narrative is cow number 6657, whom the viewer first encounters early in the morning, during her initial milking by the farmer. Her number is also the title of the film, as she becomes the central point for understanding the routine and the system in which she exists.
Not ordained | Katjuša Peterka | Slovenia, 2026 • 12:50
In a small village in the Goričko region, where the local church is watched over by Saint George, Joško quietly finds his place. His time at the altar is his deepest calling, bringing him a sense of inner peace. He recently lost his mother, and in his faith, he seeks gentle comfort, as if in the silence of the rituals he’s trying to hear her voice.
The silence of pomegranates | Clara Baj | France, Italy, 2025 • 9:20
In a coastal town in Calabria, southern Italy, a woman who prefers to remain anonymous breaks the silence surrounding the issue of abortion in the region. By denouncing the abuses of medical institutions through a poetic and experimental lens, Il silenzio dei melograni is a creative short documentary film that seeks to highlight the privileges and inequalities women face in accessing their own reproductive rights.
*Caution: Includes potentially distressing material, such as violence or trauma.
Fragments of Life from the Place I Call Home | Andreas Lazidis | Greece, 2025 • 17:55
The film is a personal and experimental documentary that explores absence and memory through the filmmaker’s family empty house. Combining archival footage from the time his grandparents lived there with present-day images of the empty space, the film reflects on how memory lingers in architecture and how spaces preserve traces of human presence.
KITE | Thanos Psichogios | Greece, 2025 • 14:34
Clean Monday. Panos, now grown, returns to a childhood ritual—flying a kite with his father, a tradition marking the start of Lent in Greece. But memories are never simple. Sounds and images, fragments of the past, weave together to reconstruct their bond. A documentary about the fragile father-son relationship and the restless power of memory.
Discarded | Sheona Mitchley | South Africa, 2025 • 23:00
A charismatic street recycler navigates survival, identity and family bonds on Johannesburg's gritty streets, revealing the fleeting nature of existence and the resilience of the human spirit.
Is Gang Stalking Real | Theodore Collatos | United States, 2025 • 16:45
A raw, unflinching look at a friendship haunted by meth-fueled paranoia, and fragile moments of clarity behind bars.
Life After Death | George Katsimichas | Greece, 2025 • 22:40
For the past three and a half years, Vasso has lived alone after losing her husband, the love of her life. Inviting us into her home, she revisits the memories they shared, recounting how they met and fell in love. Through her heartfelt reflections, she reveals how love, memory, and devotion continue to endure beyond loss.
Sunday 5/10 | Special Screening with QnA | Giorgos Moutafis
21:00 | Free Entrance
Participation in the special screening and the QnA will be strictly on a first-come, first-served basis at the venue.
Giorgos Moutafis “The Other Half”
For 15 years, G. Moutafis has been documenting the perilous journeys of migrants across the dark crossings of Europe’s borders. His camera ventures into inaccessible places, capturing the stories of people who push human endurance to its limits, shedding light on how “the Other Half” lives.
