The short film “Memoir of a Veering Storm” by Sofia Georgovassili premieres exclusively at onassis.org | Online Premiere: 12.04.2023 at 21:00
Duration: 14 min.
Available to stream until 26.04.2023
“Memoir of a Veering Storm” is a coming-of-age story of a 15-year-old girl, which takes place in the timeframe of 8 school hours. The screenplay for this short was developed with the support of Onassis Culture, as part of the Onassis Cinema in Development program.
What does a teenage body feel when faced with an abortion? Following its official premiere at the 2022 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival), as part of its ‘Generation’ competition program, the short film “Memoir of a Veering Storm” by Sofia Georgovassili is now premiering online at onassis.org
The film has been selected for the online New Yorker magazine Screening Room series, alongside other exceptional short films from around the world.Anna, 15, is driven to the school gate on a summer morning by her mother just before a storm breaks. She sneaks out of school, and with the help of her boyfriend, they visit a hospital. There, she has to face an event that will jolt her into adulthood.
“I began writing ‘Memoir of a Veering Storm’ after a friend told me about an ‘accident’ he had when was 15, with a girl his own age. He described how two teens handled the situation. This account moved me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the cinematic possibilities of its cyclical narrative. That very night, I began writing the script, and the resulting short film was completed four years later.
In the film, a mother drives her teenage girl to school one morning, only to pick her again up a woman just hours later. The expanse covered by these eight school hours grows into the greatest distance of all: a lack of understanding and connection within a family setting. Even today, when I asked a small cross-section of teens how they felt about this issue, it became clear it is something they would struggle to tell their parents. They confided in me that they’d prefer it all happened without their parents ever finding out.
As I was writing the script, women began protesting in Poland, Hungary, Argentina, and, as it turns out, in Greece too, fighting for their inalienable right to bodily integrity – for the power to make choices about their own bodies. These events galvanized my determination to complete the film.
The film, however, seeks not to focus solely on the social impacts of such a story. Even though this issue remains taboo, and our constitutionally enshrined rights continue to be threatened by medieval attitudes.
I wanted ‘Memoir of a Veering Storm’ to stay true to its form – to observe and depict the repercussions such an experience has on the state of mind of a young girl who decides to go through it alone. On a day when a Mediterranean cyclone (a Medicane) threatens to strike Greece.”
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Credits
Cast: Daphne Peel (girl), Konstantinos Sideris (boy), Stephania Sotiropoulou (friend), Maria Kallimani (mother), Nikos Hatzopoulos (doctor), Elena Mengreli (nurse)
Radio Voice: Giorgos Vourdamis
Written & Directed by Sofia Georgovassili
Producers: Stelios Cotionis, Sofia Georgovassili
Associate Producer: Antigone Rota
Director of Photography: Tudor Panduru
Editor: George Zafeiris
Sound Design & Mix: Persefoni Miliou
Composer: Jay Glass Dubs
Costumes: Vassilia Rozana
Make-up: Ioanna Lygizou
Director’s Assistant: Zabella Chaviara
Focus Puller: Stamatis Kouros
2nd AC: Peggy Zouti
Sound: Yorgos Kerpelis, Stavros Avramides
Location Manager: Yota Skouvara
Script: Olia Verriopoulou
Dialogue Editor: Chara Konstantara
Folley: Nikos Linardopoulos
Key Grip: Konstantinos Charatzoglou
Gaffers: Miltos Stolis, Yorgos Metaxiotis
VFX: Tina Koubaraki
Still Photographer: Evgenia Bourzoukou
Graphic Design: Markos Zouridakis, Ogust
Color Grading: Andu Radu / Abator Romania
Film Development: Anmar Greece
Film Scanning: Avanpost Digital Cube Romania
DCP Mastering: Authorwave
Production Manager: Dimitris Skiadopoulos
Line Production: Marilena Euthimiou, Hope Di Kappa
Production Assistants: Stefanos Levidis, Yannis Savvides, Vanessa Ferle, Aimilia Papadimou, Marissa Korogiannou
Agency: Lights On
Extras: Peggy Waterlo, Smaranda Murarus, Kalliopi Papalaioy, Anastasia Kyritsopoulou, Yorgos Christodoulou
Produced by Foss Productions
Co-produced by Onassis Culture