For four and a half years, between 2015 – 2019, acclaimed filmmaker Yorgos Avgeropoulos observed Greek society on multiple levels. As well as having exclusive access to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, he followed others, including a refugee couple from Syria and a mother whose child was murdered by Golden Dawn. The result is a unique and multiple story-lined film: a tale which evolves and unfolds with the characters over time as they face difficult decisions, even to partially achieve their goals.

Chained (Agora II)

"Life is for Sale" examines the world's largest water market set up in Chile. Where the water resources of the country do not belong to the state but to private individuals and one company can own an entire river and possess an amount of water equal to the area of Belgium. Where water has been transformed from a life public good into property, and a "water right" can cost as much as a house. Even in the Atacama desert, considered the driest region on the planet, mining companies (major owners of Chile's longest river, Rio Loa) pump huge quantities and use the precious water to wash minerals, condemning thousands of indigenous people and farming villages to thirst and poverty.

Life is for Sale

In December 2001, in Buenos Aires, great crowds of people are heading towards the historic square Plaza de Mayo. Argentina, once amongst the richest economies in the world, has gone bankrupt. The government has resigned and Argentina’s president, Fernando de la Rua, flees from the presidential residency in a helicopter, amidst a storm of enraged people clashing with the police, breaking banks, looting super markets and shouting “Out with the lot of them!” The 2001 social explosion marked the end of a neoliberal economic model which lasted 10 years and left a toll of 35 deaths (murdered by the police and the private guards of the banks), 30,000 collateral damages (suicides, heart and brain attacks) and approximately 20,000,000 (over half the population) submerged in poverty and misery.

The Argentina Experiment

The exploitation of the country’s mineral wealth is projected as the most reasonable solution to deal with the economic crisis that plagues Greece. The Greek state has ceded its mining rights over 31.700 ha of land in northern Halkidiki, a region rich in gold, copper and other metals, to the Canadian multinational company Eldorado Gold. However, many of the region’s inhabitants, who have been resisting the construction of a goldmine for years, claim that this investment will cause irreparable damage to the environment and the benefits will be fewer than the losses.  “Cassandra’s Treasure” presents a detailed picture of the modern Greek state before and during the crisis period.

Golden Times – Cassandra’s Treasure

It was an unprecedented occurrence in world history. Nowhere and never in well-governed democratic states, had the public broadcaster been silenced in such a manner that was characterized as "autocratic" and “undemocratic”.  Within five hours, on the evening of June 11, 2013, the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras turned off the switches of ERT, Greece’s public broadcaster, after 75 years of continuous operation. Both TV and radio frequencies fell silent, making screens broadcast black and the FM to buzz.  The closure of ERT was an unheard-of political act that shocked Greek citizens bringing back memories from the dark period of the dictatorship. It also caused a fierce international outrage from all around the world.  Why did the public broadcaster have to die?