"Culture Is Our Way Out Of The Crisis"

The film “Exodos 1826” is an independent production from Thessaloniki. It recounts the story of the 120 men from Samarina, and surrounding villages, who rushed to help the Exodοs (exit) from Messolonghi in April 1826. The film, based on the Greek folk song “Children of Samarina” and surviving historical facts (and a little bit of fiction), is the first movie in 46 years to be released about the Greek revolution.

- Nektaria Karakosta

What pleases me the most is that the people who watched the film tell me “I knew the folk song, but I had no idea about the story that lies behind it. Now I know the story”.

Vassilis Tsikaras

Coming from the theatre, the film’s director, Mr Vassilis Tsikaras, spoke with “POLITISMOS” about this new venture (his first full feature film) as well as the challenges he and his team have faced, and also revealed his team’s next steps. “Exodos 1826” symbolizes in part the power to escape all that binds, ensnares or strangles us in everyday life.

Q. This is the first film about the Greek Revolution of 1821 to appear on the big screen in more than 46 years. What challenges does such a production have?

There are many, and they are concise to the challenges that every motion picture has. The greatest was to find financial support to begin such a film in the first place. This particular film, as a historical piece, was more costly, compared to other films. Our complications were mostly financial.

It was difficult finding the money to start shooting. Two years had passed, with us waiting for answers from public institutions and from individual initiatives. When things seemed to come close to an impasse, suddenly we had an appointment with Mr Manolis Savvides, the president of the History Friends’ Club of Giannitsa, who managed to motivate a whole society and make this film a reality! He said that we could shoot our film in Giannitsa, though I had intended to shoot the film in Grevena and Samarina, the actual locations. But we decided to go there. Within 20 days everything was ready – we had permission from the Municipality of Pella and private sponsors to support the whole venture. Our first step was to collect costumes and weapons from various local cultural clubs. We started shooting in April 2016.