Eleftheromania: A Short Film About Untold Greek Bravery
Based on a true story:
This film follows Hungarian author and Auschwitz survivor Piroska (Academy Award Winner Olympia Dukakis) as she recites a story from her harrowing past: in the summer of 1944, the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp saw a massive increase in Hungarian prisoners.
The Nazis enlisted 446 Greek-Jewish prisoners to the horrific task of leading the prisoners into gas chambers. If the Greek-Jewish prisoners refused, they would be killed. It was nightfall when the men were informed of the impossible task they were expected to fulfill the next day. After a long debate about the Nazis’ demand, about the morality of it all, and about the meaning of life and death, the prisoners voted on whether they would fulfill the task or willfully be killed. Piroska reveals that she was one of the few Hungarian prisoners to survive and she witnessed the 446 men make their stunning choice.
ELEFTHEROMANI from David Antoniuk on Vimeo.
One of the most awarded and recognized Greek-themed short films in history that tells a relatively unknown story from the Holocaust era has been released online and is available for global streaming. The film, titled “Eleftheromania,” has been symbolically released to global audiences on International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021.
The film’s entire team decided collectively that such a story needs to be available for generations to come to recall the heroism of more than 400 Greek prisoners who defied the Nazis while they were imprisoned in Auschwitz.
The film tells the story of a group of courageous Greeks, who were given impossible orders by their Nazi captors and is based on four years of research and trips to Berlin and Poland by Gregory C. Pappas who uncovered the story of these Greek prisoners who arrived at the death camp in June of 1944.
In addition to finding first-hand evidence of their story, Pappas also scoured archives at Auschwitz and found records and testimony about this remarkable act of defiance.
Joanna Tsanis wrote the screenplay and produced the film, together with Pappas and Toronto-based producer Chuck Scott. The 20-minute film was shot in Toronto and New York City and directed by award-winning Canadian director David Antoniuk.
Academy Award-winning actor Olympia Dukakis plays an elderly survivor being interviewed by New York-born actress Anthoula Katsimatides, who plays a journalist that helps Dukakis’ character recount the horrors of the camp.
Greek singer Glykeria recorded a special version of the song “Minore Tis Avgis” for the closing credits of the song.
Eleftheromania was recognized with distinction at dozens of screenings and film festivals throughout the world, winning Best Drama at the prestigious Toronto Shorts International Film Festival and being an Official Selection at the Raindance Festival in London.
The film also won the support of the prestigious Nick Mirkopoulos Canadian Content Initiative, a Cinespace Film Studios program that recognizes the life of the company’s founder through financial and other support to worthy projects.