Deserted landscapes, ancient ruins and abandoned shipwrecks at sea. Elefsina’s archeological sites don’t come close to being as hauntingly beautiful as these dead ships. They stand majestically like memorial sculptures and bring a magnetism to the eye. In fact, these are the neglected refugees of Elefsina. For how did they end up there, anyway? What's their story? That's the story I want to know. Elefsina Notre Amour is a short sci-fi essay, a timeless archive, filmed on 16mm color Kodak.
SELECTIONS
RIDM - Montreal International Documentary Festival, Canada, 2023
Glasgow Short Film Festival, UK, 2024
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, USA, 2024
Documed, Tunisia, 2024
DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Canada, 2024
Ciné-Palestine, France, 2024
Kinemastik International Short Film Festival, Malta, 2024
Dokufest Kosovo, Kosovo, 2024
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Script: Mahdi Fleifel
DOP: Thodoros Mihopoulos
Editing: Livia Neroutsopoulou
Sound: Aris Athanasopoulos
Coordination: Zoi Moutsokou & Anastasia Tsopelaki
Version
Original: No dialogue
Format
1:66 /5.1 or stereo
DCP, Prores
Born in Dubai, Mahdi Fleifel lives and works between Denmark, England and Greece. A graduate of the British National Film & Television School, he studied Fiction Directing under Stephen Frears and Pawel Pawlikowski. In 2010 he founded the London based production company Nakba FilmWorks. Fleifel's critically acclaimed debut feature, A WORLD NOT OURS, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received over 30 awards, including the Berlinale Peace Prize, the Edinburgh, Yamagata and DOC:NYC Grand Jury Prizes. He was named Best New Nordic Voice at Nordisk Panorama and received the New Talent Award at CPH:DOX. In 2016 Fleifel won a Silver Bear for A MAN RETURNED which was also nominated for the European Film Awards the same year. His follow up, A DROWNING MAN, was selected in the Official Competition at Cannes and later nominated for a BAFTA.I SIGNED THE PETITION won Best Documentary Short at IDFA and was nominated for the 2018 European Film Awards. 3 LOGICAL EXITS premiered in the 2020 Tiger Shorts Competition at IFF Rotterdam. I SIGNED THE PETITION is available on the Criterion Channel, and the rest of the works are available on Netflix.