The program “Take Your Time” with Prokopis Agelopoulos welcomed acclaimed director Takis Bardakos and the film’s protagonist, Babis Kouremetis, to the studio. The occasion was the documentary “The Man Who Watched the Ships – Elefsina”, which traveled to Paris last week as part of GrecDoc, following an invitation from the Greek Community of Paris.
Elefsina has also received awards at the Piraeus Port Film Festival (PPFF) from the Municipality of Piraeus, at the Athens International Digital Film Festival (AIDFF), and at the Chalkida Greek Documentary Festival – DocFest, earning a special mention for its exceptional use of image and sound in conveying its poetic atmosphere.
The documentary unfolds as follows:
At the edge of the port of Elefsina, a retired man with a camera becomes a silent traveler. He never went to sea, yet he follows every departing ship with his gaze — and with his soul. Each day, he wanders along the harbor — not to document reality, but to capture a dream. Ships setting sail, distant destinations, unknown seas — everything he never lived, he preserves in images. Once a bureaucrat, he is now a sailor of the imaginary, a traveler without footsteps, guided only by his gaze. It is a poetic portrait of a quiet longing for a world that may never exist — yet it is enough that he dreamed of it.