As part of the 17th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and in collaboration with the office of the European Parliament in Greece, a press conference will be held on Friday March 20, 2015, at 13:00, at the IANOS bookstore (Aristotelous 7), to commemorate International Women’s Day, which was celebrated on March 8.

Women’s Rights will be the main topic, in a panel discussion that will include SYRIZA’s Member of the European Parliament, Stelios Kouloglou, the Head of European Parliament Information Office in Greece, Leonidas Antonakopoulos, and the directors Nadine Salib, Valerie Kontakos and Kimon Tsakiris, who are participating in the 17th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival with works that showcase the role of women and their struggles, on a personal and professional level.

The films, in detail:

 Mother of the Unborn by Nadine Salib

The absolute truth lies in the notions of life and death… Fertility is indeed the miracle of creation. But does it answer the question of happiness, or is it just an illusion? In a forgotten corner of Egypt lives “Hanan,” who has been yearning to have a child for 12 years. Because of her infertility, Hanan has no option but to live on the fringe of her community. She is troubled by a dream that is slowly slipping away and her struggle to find a place where she belongs, while everything that surrounds her seems concerned with fertility and mortality. In a dreamlike narrative form, Hanan enters into candid, touching conversations about the meaning of love, of faith and time.

Mana by Valerie Kontakos

In 1962, a group of young women made headlines in Greece by running away to join a convent. Each time they were captured and sent back to their families, but they kept trying until they finally succeeded. Their goal wasn’t to distance themselves from society by fasting and praying. What they wanted more than anything else was to offer a shelter for abandoned and abused children. Half a century later, the surviving founders are still running the Lyrio Children’s Village, without any help from church or state. Mana is a different kind of story of female emancipation that has changed the lives of hundreds of children so far, redefining the concept of the unwed mother.

 The Αrchaeologist by Kimon Tsakiris, Greece

Georgia Karamitrou is an archaeologist that has dedicated her life to the protection of the natural and cultural environment of Western Macedonia.

After 30 years of excavations and numerous important finds, Georgia faces one more “battle.” The Greek National Power Company is building a new dam in the region and Georgia has two months to salvage as much as possible from the archaeological excavation, which will be flooded during the construction process. Georgia will have to remain strong throughout and deal with a series of obstacles that in the end become a manifestation of taking “personal responsibility”.