The John Boorman retro peaks with a special "Deliverance" screening, a European film distribution panel takes off and the international competition reveals new talent.

A Faceless Country
For journalist/documentary filmmaker and "Kandahar" actress Nasifar Pazira, the film is more than a performance. Pazira, who relocated to Canada after fleeing Afghanistan in 1989 with her family, presented a personal rescue story to Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The director, who had been concerned with war-torn Afghanistan long before September 11, asked her to star in her story. She explained that the shooting - held between November and February of last year - was an eye-opening experience. "It was the first time," Pazira said, "where I had seen people actually starving to death." Pazira noted the importance of the film, amid mass media misrepresentations. Nonprofessional actors from border regions, many of whom didn't know what films were, are featured in it. Real and surreal imagery (like that of an eclipse) blend in the film, as the distinction between documentary and fiction was less important than showing a "devastated country that needs help and cries for peace". It wasn't easy, the woman raised in a liberal family said, to critique one's own culture. The issue of veil-wearing inevitably came up. When forced to wear one for the first time, she found it "suffocating" and distancing. Pazira discovered, during the treacherous filming, that it also gave a false sense of security. But, veil or not, she lauded Afghani women with going on.

The Competition Thickens
A Slovenian and French film make their international competition debut. A 3.30pm screening introduces Jan Cvitkovic's "Bread and Milk" to Thessaloniki. This film looks at a former alcoholic's return to the bottle, after being betrayed. Then, at 8pm, Marie Vermillard's vision will be displayed with her film "Imago", which is the tale of a man, his wife, mistress and a terrible accident.

Circle of Friends
A couple of Thessaloniki favorites are on show today. First at 8pm, there will be a screening of Clare Denis' new "Trouble Every Day", giving a taste of new French cinema. Denis' latest work looks at a newlywed American couple in France, who is less interested in romance than a solution for psychological scars. Then at 11pm, Manoel de Oliveira's "Oporto of My Childhood" is a return to the city of his birth.

Senores y Senoras
Latin American productions abound in today's program, with three Argentine films' Greek debuts: "Silvia Prieto" (on her birthday a woman vows to remake her life but makes a horrible discovery, 3.45pm), "The South of a Passion" (an incestuous tango between a father/daughter dancing couple, 6pm) and "Bad Times" (Argentine film students' creation, 8.30pm).

Mobbing the Microphone
This year, in an effort to bring more spunk to press conferences, the festival's New Horizons section has decided to involve local thespians. Ten young actors and actresses present the films. Today Krateros Katsoullis and Peggy Trikalioti present two new films. Meanwhile writers have been presenting the films in the Greek Panorama with prepared speeches, which range from dry and facile to deeply engaging and clever (like the films themselves).

The Reading Public
Each year the festival produces stacks of books (in Greek) on featured directors. Three of these are unveiled today at 6pm.

Kwan's Global Appeal
Hong Kong-born Stanley Kwan trained as an actor before getting involved in "new wave" filmmaking. The provocative director made his first feature in 1985, but it was his second film, a love trio called "Red Rose, White Rose," that caught the world's attention. Tonight Kwan's 1997 award-winning "Hold You Tight" (11pm) screens. It's about four characters, with various sexual orientations, who are searching for love.

There is No Fringe
Indie production "Still Looking for Morphine" was a pleasant surprise for many journalists in the wee hours of Sunday morning. The film, based on a popular novel, tells the story of a teen girl in Pireus who is living on a few drachmas, a cheap room with graffiti, a friendship with a drug dealer and a stray cat named "Morphine". In the blurry white city, talk is simple and real affection, precious. The director explained that he wasn't interested in preaching about drugs with the film (it features various users) but rather youth's ageless search for freedom and resistance to conformity.

A Nation of Cinema-goers
Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos addressed the press (at length) at yesterday's festival. Among the more interesting facts and figures was the note that Thessaloniki residents average 2,3 films a year each, while Athenians only average 1,2 films. The minister informed the audience about a planned e-cinema, Greece's first, to be based at the Olympion Theater. He pointed to upward trends in local production and distribution and Greek participation in European Union media programs (including a new film archives-preservation plan). Venizelos pledged the government's support of existing media programs at universities and referred to the always-heated ongoing dream of a real film school for Greece.

Appealing to Everyone
Constantinos Yiannaris noted that his new film "One Day in August", is a continuation of sorts of his previous film, about young people from the former Soviet Union in Greece. But whereas the other film was about those at "the edge of the city", this time around he appeals to "the center of town". He wanted to tell people: "Don't leave your lovers and family," but stay and work through things. As for the religious elements, he noted: "I believe in miracles. If there weren't any, we'd all be in serious trouble." It's important, he noted, for a film to appeal to everyone - "from my mother to cinephiles." The director, who made a name for himself with gay-themed shorts, again defied categorization.

Mainstream Cinema
The 1.5 million ticket success of Mihalis Reppas and Thanassis Papathanassiou's film "Safe Sex" made them a lot of friends and foes. Today the festival plays (at 1pm) the second film of this directing and screenwriting duo that are a household name in Greece. In "Silicon Tears" they spoof Greek melodramas of the 1960s as well a few other genres (including the early shepherdess films). Unlike that film, which has had widespread distribution in cinemas recently, three other Greek films debut today: "The Souls of the Fishing Boats" (a narrative about a boy sailing the Aegean, blended with 35 years of sea footage, 1.30pm), "Paradise is a Personal Matter" (a man enters a woman's chaotic universe, 5.30pm) and "The Belly of the Bee" (a comic road trip involving some precious jewels, 10.30pm).

Mass Distribution Recipes
A panel sponsored by the Greek Film Center, on the problem of promoting European films, begins today at 9.30am. The panel discussion continues tomorrow.

Quote/unquote:
"Without mini-DV cameras and computer editing technology, it wouldn't have been possible to make the film. It would have never happened ten years ago." - Yannis Fagras, director of "Still Looking for Morphine"
"I belong where I'm standing." -Senegalese student in Paris, in film "L'Afrance"

Angelike Contis
First shot, #96, 12/11/2000