On Friday, March 7, 2025, shortly after 10 AM Athens time, the show “Take Your Time” will host director Stavros Psyllakis at the Voice of Greece studio for a discussion about his documentary Sculpted Souls, which is competing in the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s competition section.
The film presents Julien Grivel, the Swiss dentist who, for 26 years (1972-1998), came to Athens twice a year to provide free dental care for people with leprosy at the Infectious Diseases Hospital “Agia Barbara.”
Grivel’s experiences in post-Junta Greece, his contact with people with leprosy, and his friendship with Manolis Fountoulakis (a former leper) became a major personal journey towards his own Ithaca. As he said himself, “my relationship with Greece is rich, deep, intellectual. By adopting the language of the Greeks, I unconsciously adopted their way of thinking… An inner dive into a country that gave me, and continues to give me, the ‘beautiful journey.’”
Drawing from his diaries of that period, Julien Grivel wrote “GREECE, My Ithaca,” which served as the inspiration for Stavros Psyllakis’ film, to be presented at the Thessaloniki Festival. The film features Grivel and Manolis Fountoulakis as the central figures in Julien’s great inner journey toward his own Ithaca.
Produced and presented by Prokopis Agelopoulos
Journalistic production-show coordination: Lia Tarousi
