The movie “J.A.C.E. – Just Another Confused Elephant” by Greek filmmaker Menelaos Karamaghiolis explores the dark world of child trafficking, following the journey of an Albanian-Greek child, who after witnessing the murder of his foster family, is abducted by the ruthless traffickers.

The award-winning feature movie, Menelaos Karamaghiolis’s second feature film, sheds light on one of the gravest and often underreported global plights of our time, child trafficking, and is based on true stories.

Children are often trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation or for labour, such as domestic servitude, agricultural work, factory work, and mining, or they’re forced to fight in conflicts. The most vulnerable children, particularly refugees, and migrants, are often preyed upon, and their hopes for an education, a better job, or a better life in a new country.

The movie follows the story of a young child, Jace, who ends up in Athens, begging on street corners, experiencing the horrors of institutions for young offenders, or serving obscure patrons in a world where violent loss seems to be his only destiny.

The audience will be thrown into Jace’s inverted odyssey in a dark universe of abuse, murder, and fear, as he desperately seeks a ‘family’ and a sense of belonging.

The film is presented in collaboration with Institut français du Royaume-Uni and will be screened at Serpentine Cinema on Monday 27 March 2023, at 8:15 pm.

The four-day festival is celebrating four decades of films by the Greek filmmaker Menelaos Karamaghiolis, whose practice is comprised of documentaries, fiction, artist film, activism, and radio.

Menelaos Karamaghiolis has been producing feature films, documentaries, artist films, installations, and radio movies tackling difficult social issues that star real-life neglected heroes and transcend frontiers and stereotypes to serve as an essential tool for dialogue and social change.

The audience will have the chance to hear the filmmaker himself in conversation with Serpentine Artistic Director, Hans Ulrich Obrist, in Life Cinematic, an immersive film lecture.

Limited tickets are available – book now (here)