Listen to the interview with director Stavros Psillakis on Voice of Greece‘s show Take Your Time, where he discusses his new documentary film Sculpted Souls. The film centers around Swiss dentist and philhellene Julien Grivel, who, for 26 years, from 1972 to 1998, spent his summer vacations caring for leprosy patients at the Infectious Diseases Hospital of Saint Barbara in Aigaleo. Through his relationship with the iconic figure Manolis Fountoulakis, with whom he became close friends, and another patient, Epaminondas Remountakis, who lived on Spinalonga and spent much of his life in Saint Barbara, Grivel embarks on his own personal journey, ultimately leading him to his own Ithaca.
Using diaries from that period, Julien Grivel wrote Greece, My Ithaca, which inspired Stavros Psillakis’s film. The film will be presented at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in mid-March. In the interview, excerpts from the film are shared, along with the song featured in the film, written and performed by Giannis Haroulis. The conversation also includes references to Grivel’s wife, Christiane, who accompanied him on the “adventure” in Saint Barbara and stood by him and the leprosy patients.