The Anifantou Festival will take place in Anogeia on 31 August and 1 September 2025.

Festival Programme

Sunday, 31 August 2025

11:30–14:00 & 18:30–20:00 | Anogeia Municipal Cinema
Two-day screening: “And the Unwoven” – Films as threads in a world of the unseen and ancestral
Curated by: Sysylo – Cultural Organisation for Music and the Arts

Description:
A selection of films that weave stories of memory, heritage, invisibility, and cultural continuity. These cinematic threads explore identity, loss, and the longing to belong—through voices rarely heard and places often unseen.
From the highlands of Colombia to the mountains of Crete, from Mexican textile traditions to the silence of a Portuguese forest, these films illuminate invisible connections between people and land, past and present, myth and daily life.
A special highlight is a deeply emotional hybrid diptych of short films—images altered through AI—born from a need to explore imaginary yet intimate landscapes. The series drifts through Turkey, Texas, Saigon, and Kosovo, tracing ruptures, displacements, and inner transformations.
Each piece is a gesture of listening to that which resists linear storytelling—rituals, languages, landscapes, and movements that live on in whispers, rhythms, and breaths.
Sysylo’s curatorship focuses on rural life, female experience, and authentic storytelling—a form of "rural cinema" with an international outlook. The name Sysylo, inspired by “the ecstatic hour of noon,” reflects its mission: to support cultural expression rooted in daily life and place, with an emphasis on small communities and lived creativity.

Morning film programme (11:30–14:00):

• Tila•pia, Crispin Yanisi – 19 mins (11:30)

• Memory’s Nourishment, Niki Toutountzaki & Giorgos Trypidakis – 5 mins (12:00)

• A Day in Barbagia, Vittorio de Setta – 12 mins (12:30)

• El bon auguri, Alba Bresolí – 13.5 mins (12:45)

• Nocturno para uma Floresta, Catarina Vasconcelos – 16 mins (13:05)

• Flores de la llanura, Mariana Xochiquétzal Rivera García – 19 mins (13:30)

Afternoon screening (18:30–20:00):

• Adieu Savage, Sergio Guataquira Sarmiento – 92 mins

20:00–21:00 | Livadi Square, Perachori
Screening of “Mitato Sessions: The Towel” & Talk: “Weaving as Cottage Industry and Art Form”
Speaker: Niki Roubani, President of the Greek Network of Women of Europe – educator, painter, and activist.

Description:
Mitato Sessions is a concept for documenting local stories and showcasing new musical experimentation. The project highlights the history of remote mountain communities whose populations and cultural identity are fading, while creating a dialogue between storytelling and sound experimentation.
It consists of musical encounters among artists, objects, and narrators, aiming to connect artists with place, people, and stories—focusing on different musical genres and improvisation that emerges through collaboration.

Concept & Production: Vedema Productions

21:00–21:30 | The Shepherd’s Place
Solo dance performance by Maria Manoukian

Description:
A dance born from the pulse of being—from internal vibration to external reverberation.
A bodily journey between grounding and flight, an endless poetic battle between weight and light.
Maria Manoukian performs the rhythm that courses through us all, speaking the silent language of movement.

21:30–22:30 | The Shepherd’s Place
Music Performance: “Anifantou – I Had a Strange Dream”
Performers:

• Niki Xylouri: vocals, percussion, baritone Cretan lyra

• Maria-Christina Harper: electroacoustic harp, effects

• Sound Engineer: Dimitris Chatzakis

Description:
Niki Xylouri and Maria-Christina Harper weave their unique sonic universe. Vocals, harp, lyra, and percussion create a bold musical landscape where Greek tradition meets jazz, avant-garde, and experimentation.
A journey of sound, transformation, destruction, and rebirth, inspired by the mythic figure of Anifantou—the eternal woman-creator embedded in Cretan folk song and oral poetry.

19:00–23:00 | The Shepherd’s Place
Exhibition of Works by:

• Anogeia School of Weaving Art – Pilot programme by KEDIVIM PADA with support from the Ministry of Culture

• Elli Lyraraki – Minoan Steps

• Zoi Papadaki – Ergastini

Monday, 1 September 2025

11:00–14:00 | Anogeia Hospitality Centre – Student Residence
Contemporary Dance Workshop: “Inner Globe”
Instructor: Maria Manoukian

Description:
Inner Globe is a globally recognised movement practice that explores the body through the sphere as a form and kinetic state.
This innovative method has been successfully applied to dancers, movement enthusiasts, children (from age 5), and adults over 50.
Through structured exercises and guided improvisation, participants discover new possibilities of motion, activating the whole body and deepening awareness of space, flow, and dynamic movement.

Duration: 4 hours
Participation: Free – Reservation required

17:15–19:00 | Anogeia Municipal Cinema
Film Screenings: “And the Unwoven”
Curated by: Sysylo Cultural Organisation

• Turkey Texas, Tin Dirdamal – 12 mins (17:15)

• Saigon Kosovo, Tin Dirdamal – 7 mins (17:30)

• Mafifa, Daniela Muñoz – 77 mins (17:40)

20:30–21:30 | Idaion Antron
Music Performance: “Invisible Rain” with Giorgis Xylouris and Giannis Aggelakas

“There is a quiet, invisible, persistent rain
falling endlessly on our world.
Most people neither feel it
nor ever see it.”

Giorgis Xylouris and Giannis Aggelakas
will perform under this invisible rain,
in Anogeia... without umbrellas.

Sound & Interventions: Markos Pinakoulakis
Sound Editing: Dimitris Salepakis
Curated & Organised by: Sysylo – Cultural Organisation for Music and the Arts
Free entry with pre-registration and timely arrival