Across Her Body

Documentary - 2018

Every July 31st, Mrs. Irene and the other remaining "fifteeners" return to the obsolete Monastery of the Accession, on the island of Therasia, the little know twin sister of cosmopolitan Santorini. For fifteen days they stay at the empty cells of the Monastery, preparing it for the celebration of the Accession and praying for eternal rest of their beloved ones. In between they recall past glories of the tradition of "Fifteen" while gazing at the touristic traffic across Santorini's volcanic bay. ACROSS HER BODY questions issues of faith, identity and gender by correlating three distinct bodies: the "unspoiled" body of the Virgin Mary, the deserted body of the once upon a time fertile Therasia and the aging female bodies of the fifteeners. It's an homage to an archetype of Greek motherhood that was common place in the post war society and is becoming obsolete in modern Greece.