Cypriot filmmaker’s haunting depiction of 1974 captures global attention
Source: in-cyprus.com
A powerful short film titled “74” has garnered international recognition for its haunting portrayal of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
Created by Cypriot filmmaker Charalambos Margaritis, the 16-minute piece has won the Best Animated Short award at the Raindance Film Festival and has been selected for multiple international film festivals, including the Drama International Short Film Festival, the Bolton Film Festival, the Larissa International Film Festival and the Greek International Film Festival Tour of Canada in Toronto.
Margaritis’ film is a visual exploration of collective and individual trauma, presented through an abstract and evocative lens. By eschewing traditional narrative, he challenges viewers to confront the complexities of memory and the enduring impact of the 1974 tragedy.
The filmmaker’s decision to focus on the psychological and emotional aftermath of the invasion, rather than explicit historical events, offers a fresh perspective on a deeply sensitive subject.
Margaritis explained that the film is a product of his attempt to better understand how memory functions concerning the events of 1974. “I think in visual terms,” he said, adding that the successive images in the film are essentially a chain of his thoughts on memory, trauma, and their impact.
Charalambos Margaritis is a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He lives and works in Paphos, where he founded the Kimonos Art Centre in 2015. He is also a member of the special education staff at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the School of Fine and Applied Arts at the Cyprus University of Technology, teaching animation and art history. He is currently pursuing a doctoral thesis on experimental narrative techniques in moving images.
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