There is an island in the Cyclades that the tourist economy somehow failed to overwhelm. Folegandros – rising like a craggy, defiant fist against the cobalt Aegean – has no airport, no sandy beaches, no sprawling resort infrastructure. What it has instead is something increasingly rare in the Greek islands: the feeling that you have arrived somewhere that existed long before you got there and will persist long after you leave. It is also, I am about to discover, the perfect setting for one of Europe’s most quietly extraordinary cultural experiences: The Psarokokalo International Short Film Festival.
Since 2007, the Psarokokalo film fest – fishbone in Greek – has been championing new directors from around the world with a seriousness and curatorial intelligence that belies its intimate scale. This year’s 18th edition, which ran July 10 to 17, welcomed 42 filmmakers, creators, academics, and industry experts from Ghana to Greece, with a special focus on Argentina and a thematic section that explored the intersection between art, science, and architecture. Intrigued by their social media and website, I traveled there from Crete to meet the festival founder, Soultana Koumoutsi, and this year’s invitees.
