Greece: Transnational Dynamics in Greek Cinema since the Crisis

The chapter on Greece provides a contextualizing overview of the flourishing post-2008 Greek film culture and a brief exploration of its important trends and patterns. It identifies three major strands within Greek cinema: (a) popular heritage narratives that employ shared histories (e.g., Holocaust, WWII) while capitalizing on national specificity; (b) ‘weird wave’ or aesthetically challenging genre-oriented art-house films, widely screened at international festivals; and (c) politically oriented documentaries that address issues of global interest such as neo-Nazism and the financial or refugee crises. The chapter places particular emphasis on how these trends ‘Europeanize’ and ‘transnationalize’ the Greek experience by securing international funding and addressing non-national audiences, while, at the same time, renegotiating national identity.