Like Stone Lions in the Gateway into Night

Between 1947 and 1951, more than 80 000 Greek men, women and children were deported to the isle of Makronissos (Greece) in reeducation camps erected to 'fight the spread of Communism'. Among these exiles were writers and poets such as Yannis Ritsos and Tassos Livaditis, who nevertheless produced poems that describe the struggle for survival within this world of internment. These texts, some buried within the camps, were later recovered. «Like Lions of stone at the gateway of night» blends these poetic works with the reeducation propaganda speeches broadcast through the camps' loudspeakers. Extended tracking shots carry the viewer on a trance-like journey through the camp ruins, interrupted by archival photographic fragments. A cinematic essay that resurrects memory of forgotten ruins and a lost battle.