OFFICIAL SELECTION

“THE GREEK PASSAGE” Written by Lorenzo Guarnieri (Italy)

BIO:

Lorenzo Guarnieri was born to a Florentine father and American mother in Florence, where he attended the Instituto Statale d’Arte di Porta Romana and obtained his arts diploma. At the same time he received a diploma in classical guitar, achieving maximum marks, at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatorio in Florence. A number of master proficiency diplomas in solo and chamber performance practice followed. He also specialised in orchestra direction with Piero Bellugi and set up the Orchestra Mosaico Ensamble. His concert work saw him playing in the most important Italian and European music festivals. He then acquired a Diploma in Cinematographic Direction in Rome at ACT Multimedia in Cinecittà. His teachers included the Algerian director, Rachid Benhadj, Carlo Lizzani, Adriano Tagliavia and Franco Di Giacomo.

He has produced several short films and video clips, winning awards in national and international festivals, from RIFF in Rome to the Gulf Film Festival in Dubai. His latest medium-length film, the entirely self-produced Sonia’s Story, was selected by 80 International Festivals and won 33 Awards. He is also a scriptwriter, working alongside International Script Consultants like Linda Seger (USA), Roberto Leoni (Italy) and Philip Shelley (UK). For the past five years he has been working on his first full feature film, The Greek Passage, writing the screenplay and preparing for directing it.

THE IDEA - Five years ago, I was in Paris to interview Patrick Baz, a famous French Lebanese war photojournalist who had been forced to interrupt his war missions and change way of his life because of a PTSD syndrome. His story was so fascinating and compelling that I decided that my Main Character in the script would have been a war-photojournalist, but I needed a contest where this character could act and later I found it on a small Greek island close to Turkey called Pserimos.

This island is unique because only 20 peoples are living there, and it preserves the magic of ancient myths and traditions. But in this paradise I saw the landing of a group of Syrian refugees escaping from the war, and I was shocked to hear the story of their terrible journey by the sea where many of them died. Also, I was stunned that some of them, just landed to the beach, wanted to go back and fight for the freedom of their country, because they had realized that even escaping, they could lose their lives. I found this issue very relevant as it brought to light a new point of view about war refugees. At that point I knew that I had all elements to write an original story based on real events.

“THE GREEK PASSAGE” Written by Lorenzo Guarnieri (Italy)

LOGLINE: (Genre: Political Thriller) Inspired by real events.

2019. The photograph of a Kurdish girl killed in Syria obsesses Joe Fares, a photojournalist suffering from PTSD. Intent on finding the culprit, Joe tracks down Thierry, a trafficker, on a Greek island, but a shipwreck, the re-emergence of past memories and the encounter with Clara and Captain Nikolas blow him off course forever.

STORY OUTLINE:

2019. A photo taken by war photojournalist Joe Fares shows the cold-blooded killing of a Kurdish girl. Suffering from PTSD, Joe discovers that the murder weapon had been provided by Thierry Duran, who is now trafficking Syrian refugees on Pserimos, a Greek island. Tormented by images of the murdered girl, Joe sets off to hunt down the criminal on the island, meeting Nikolas, the captain of a caïque, and the beguiling Clara, a German geologist carrying out research with a drone.

During the night a boat belonging to Thierry’s gang, packed with Syrian refugees, sinks off Pserimos. Joe’s attempts to help are in vain. Unexpectedly, three of the refugees survive. Outraged at the deaths of their companions, they mistake Joe for Thierry and attack him, leaving him unconscious on the beach. On coming round, Joe finds himself face to face with Thierry who hogties him and leaves him for dead before going off in search of the refugees. Clara manages to save Joe, but he remembers an uncomfortable truth about his past in Syria, and is forced to look deep down inside himself. A close relationship develops between the two but, on returning to port, Thierry kidnaps Clara and whisks her away on his motorboat.

Aboard the caïque Joe and Captain Nikolas hunt down Thierry and, after a feverish chase, they capture him and save Clara. The sudden reappearance of the three surviving refugees and their desire for revenge against Thierry leaves Joe facing a dilemma that will completely upset his plans.

CONCEPT - Life offers us numerous chances to change the course of our lives, and each new day is filled with hope that a better one is coming.

The chances of having a better life and surpassing our tragic past depend on how we take it, in fact, The Greek Passage is a story where all the characters overcome life’s difficulties and undertake a ‘journey’ which will change them forever.