TACK by Vania Turner – 2024

When Olympic medalist Sofia Bekatorou reveals her rape by a powerful figure within the Hellenic Sailing Federation, it sparks Greece’s #MeToo movement and turns her into a national symbol for abuse victims. Inspired by Sofia, sailing champion Amalia, decides to seek justice for herself –she was systematically abused by her coach between the ages of 11 and 13. As Sofia champions legal reforms to empower abuse victims, Amalia takes her abuser to court in what becomes Greece’s first #MeToo trial. With deep compassion, the film follows the two women for two years as they navigate this seismic shift in Greece. Animated sketches bring the courtroom drama to life where Amalia faces intense victim blaming, humiliation, and attempts to discredit her. Sofia, whose own case has expired, stands by her side, as she copes with her own trauma and confronts her relationship with her father. The two women achieve a measure of justice but realize that their fight to modernize Greek social norms has only just begun. So, they must tack like sailors maneuvering through the winds of adversity to keep moving forward.

"TACK is a deeply intimate documentary that follows two women and elite athletes –Sofia, 43 and Amalia, 22– whose lives intersect as they seek justice. Sofia and Amalia's paths cross when Amalia reaches out to Sofia, a two-time Olympic medalist who shares her own harrowing experience of sexual assault by a strongman within the Hellenic Sailing Federation and becomes the catalyst for the MeToo movement in Greece. From that moment on, a legal battle begins against Amalia's former coach. Over the course of two years, the film follows and observes the two women as they navigate complex and painful legal proceedings.

Their lives in the film run in parallel:

I began filming Sofia as she became a national symbol and met Amalia shortly after she made the difficult decision to take her abuser to court. Throughout these two years, and especially during the trial, my camera became a sort of repository for their thoughts and we grew extremely close. Focusing on them allowed me to begin a deep exploration of complex trauma, revealing the profound impact it has on victims and their loved ones. It also allowed me to move beyond the life of the protagonists to tell the story of a broken criminal justice system, and to show how the insularity of small towns ends up isolating and stigmatizing victims -including children."

– Vania Turner

• 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, Greece, 2024 (FIPRESCI - International Federation of Film Critics Award for Best Greek Documentary, Best Film Award by the Youth Jury comprised of students from the Thessaloniki Universities, ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation) Award accompanied by a cash prize of 3,000 €, Special Mention in the International Newcomers Competition, WIFT GR Award by the Greek Chapter of Women in Film & Television to a woman filmmaker)
• 26th One World | International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, 2024, Czech Republic (Regional Jury Award, Abakus Foundation Audience Award for Exceptional Discussion)
• 8th MOLDOX | International Documentary Film Festival for Social Change, 2024, Chișinău, Moldova
• 11th International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra, Greece, 2024 (Best Music Award awarded to Nikos Veliotis, 2nd Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary Film0
• 20th Freedom FilmFest 2024, Malaysia
• 10th International Documentary Festival Visioni dal Mondo, Milan, Italy, 2024
• 17th Film Festival for Women's Rights, South Korea, 2024 (FIWOM Grand Prix)
• 12th Chania Film Festival, Greece
• 31st Women Make Waves International Film Festival, Taiwan, 2024
• Inconvenient Films | Human Rights International Documentary Film Festival, Kaunas & Vilnius, Lithuania, 2024
• 53rd Kyiv International Film Festival Molodist, Ukraine, 2024
• 4th Under Our Skin | International Film Festival on Human Rights & Culture, Nairobi, Kenya, 2024
• 5th Orient Express Film Festival, Switzerland, 2024
• 5th TerraViva Film Festival, Bologna, Italy, 2024
• 10th Peloponnisos International Documentary Film Festival, Greece, 2024 (Equality Competition, Jury Prize Best Greek Competition)
• PriMed | Le Festival de la Méditerranée en images, Marseille, France, 2024
• Baturu International Cultural Festival (China Women’s Film Festival), TBA
• GrecDoc Ciné-Club, Paris, France, 2025

As a film, “TACK” complements the above actions and values of the Onassis Foundation, aspiring to empower every person who has experienced violence to raise their voice and eventually change the plot of their story.

• “TACK” began following a commission by Christos Sarris to create a project about sexism in Greece. Following research on issues such as sexism in the media workplace and sports, the short film “Girlhood,” co-directed by Vania Turner and Maria Sidiropoulou, initially emerged. On November 25, 2002, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Sofia Bekatorou broke her silence for the first time by writing a comment on the Onassis YouTube Channel. On December 22, 2020, she gave an interview to “Marie Claire” magazine, where she first reported the sexual harassment she underwent by a powerful figure of the Hellenic Sailing Federation. That was the first time Vania contacted Sofia, as at the same time new accusations from athletes were being emerged. On the day she filed the complaint, Vania and Maria were there to meet her. They presented her with the project’s framework and stated that their objective was to empower other women to speak up. Sofia accepted, and the filming began soon afterward. On January 18, 2021, Amalia sent a message to Sofia, which marked the beginning of her own court battle.
• The director followed Amalia’s case and life with her camera for three years. In 2024, and while “TACK” has reached its completion, Vania Turner is no longer behind the camera documenting her story but still stands by the side of Amalia Provelengiou until her final vindication.
• There are more than 100 hours of video footage of Sofia Bekatorou in Vania’s archive, with the majority of material assembled during the first months of the pandemic. “We didn’t know where all this would lead,” says the director, adding, “Sofia had turned into a national symbol. She was receiving hundreds of messages from victims who were seeking her help.” It was exactly the moment when the story of Greek #MeToo was unfolding parallel to Sofia’s story.
• From the moment Amalia’s story was leaked to the press, the media scrutinized Amalia’s life as well as her family’s. For Amalia, Vania’s camera was an ally, a witness, or simply a friend to talk to.
• Today, Vania is in the research stage of a new documentary centered on the climate crisis and social collapse. She believes that the camera carries a certain power. Therefore, it is important for the people she films to know that they can press “stop” or “play” at any time.

“"Tack", which scooped five awards in Thessaloniki, not only examines how sexual abuse upended the lives of its two subjects, but explores the impact on their loved ones and the ways in which gender-based discrimination and sexual violence continue to affect millions of women in Greece.”

– Christopher Vourlias, Variety

“When the Harvey Weinstein sex abuse scandal broke in 2017, it sparked the #MeToo movement that travelled around the globe. Many of the accusations that surfaced pointed to institutional problems and a widespread culture of denial. This domino effect reached Greece in 2020, when Olympic gold medal winning sailor Sofia Bekatorou revealed she had been raped several years earlier by a senior member of the Hellenic Sailing Federation national governing body.”

– Amber Wilkinson, Screendaily

“Two branches of documentary art, i.e., theater and cinema, attend to the trauma, serve public memory, and present to us the human beings upon whom hideous crimes have been committed, endowing solidarity with a comforting role and raising awareness with a deterrent one, seeking justice in a society that fails to acknowledge the victim, a weakness that renders it potentially complicit.”

– Ioanna Sotirchou, Efimerida ton Syntakton

“We see a shift following Sofia’s complaint. Indeed, many people began speaking out, even if they didn’t do it in public or file a report. Many people engaged in conversations with their friends, their mothers, or their fathers. And that is a huge victory. So, in a way, some people started to be afraid and, therefore, more cautious. Indeed, we didn’t see any big scandals breaking out in the business world, which either way conceals a lot of abuse of power. Besides, who stands any chance of challenging these powers? Yet, some people did speak out, and some will do so in the future. Maybe there is something we can do to provide the victims with better protection and overall conditions.”

– Eftihia Soufleri, News247