Veeps

During the volatile 1987 Aegean crisis, a collector sets out to the memory-laden coast of Asia Minor and unearths a haunting mystery dating back to the Great Fire of Smyrna. Can a blood sacrifice appease decades of pain and suffering? The enigmatic old woman Rosa from Izmir and the powerful Ismael live for decades with the weight of a well-kept secret. An avid collector of Greek objects in Asia Minor, Dimitris, prepares an exhibition in a renowned museum in Athens on Culture of Nationalities who cohabited in Izmir before the genocide. In a trip to Izmir with the curator of the museum and his girlfriend Rita, he accidentally finds in a small antique shop a Greek wedding dress that is stained with blood. An old photograph, a wedding dress soiled with blood and a letter, become the reason to retract their story from the past. During the volatile 1987 Aegean crisis between Greece and Turkey, Dimitris, a successful architect and avid art collector, sets out to the memory-laden coast of Asia Minor, searching for the perfect centrepiece for an upcoming exhibition of cultural heritage. Much to his amazement, his systematic and penetrating investigation unearths a well-worn black-and-white photograph and a blood-stained silk wedding dress, which harbour a haunting and shadowy mystery dating back to the abominable September of 1922, and the Great Fire of Smyrna. And, from the ashes of the enviable metropolitan city, a tragic love story unfolds. Can a blood sacrifice appease decades of pain and suffering? —Nick Riganas