film

Garlic and Watermelons

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Producer(s)	Lauren Feeney, Cameron Hickey
Director(s)	Lauren Feeney, Cameron Hickey
Release Date	2006
Work In Progress	n
Runtime	64 min
Youth Media	n
Educational Materials	Yes

Film Description

The bittersweet story of a Gypsy family whose home is demolished in order to make room for a parking lot for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

The lights of the Olympic Stadium loom above the rooftops of a pink and purple village. Below, women are washing clothes, men peeling garlic, and children are playing in the dust. Prokopis Nikolau sits alone on the cement patio of his wooden shack, looking pensive, sullen. He and the others in the settlement, a deeply intertwined circle of family and friends, are Greek Gypsies. They have lived in this village, built with their own hands, for over forty years. But the Olympics are coming to Athens, and the city is one big construction site. The place where Prokopis Nikolau and his family have lived for generations is now at the epicenter of the chaos. Their settlement is adjacent to the Main Olympic Complex, and they have been informed that their homes will be demolished in order to make room for a parking lot. The film Garlic and Watermelon chronicles the lives of Prokopis and his extended family in the year leading up to the Olympic Games. Their struggle to find a new home, to extract the subsidies that they were promised from the local municipality, and to rebuild their lives represents a humble battle against racism and poverty. But their story is bittersweet. While Prokopis deals with unresponsive bureaucrats, family disputes, and several evictions, his wife has a beautiful new baby girl, his sons, in school for the first time, learn to read and write, and the entire family savors a traditional Easter feast.

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Last Updated On:	May 21, 2012