Stavros PsillakisStavros Psillakis

THE MAN WHO DISTURBED THE UNIVERSE

Ο ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ ΠΟΥ ΕΝΟΧΛΗΣΕ ΤΟ ΣΥΜΠΑΝ

Documentary · 52′ · 2000

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Synopsis

Starting from efforts at deinstitutionalization at the Chania Psychiatric Hospital, the film tries to listen to the voice of madness beneath its chaotic ravings. It proposes another way of looking at madness and at the human being — at the capacities and sensitivities of those who suffer psychically, and at the unclear boundaries of “normality.” A document that unsettles and provokes.

Film credits

Genre
Documentary
Running time
52′
Year
2000
Direction – Screenplay
Stavros Psillakis
Scientific advisors
Giorgos Kokkinakos, Antonis Liodakis
Cinematography
Kostas Palmas
Editing
Giorgos Triantafyllou
Sound recording
Epaminondas Hatzinikolis
Image – sound post-production
Dimosthenis Raptis
Production
Greek Film Centre — Stavros Psillakis
Shooting locations
GREECE (Chania Prefecture) – DENMARK (Aalborg area), 1996–1997

Awards

  • Special Award for Best Greek Creative Documentary — International Jury, 2nd International Documentary Festival of Kalamata (October 2000)
  • Best Greek Film Award — Greek Film Directors' Guild (shared with the documentary THE LICENSE)

Director’s note

Chania Psychiatric Hospital. A group of patients hosts us in the “Municipality Church.” In the space where they transact and converse daily — where “one asks for a hundred-drachma note and another asks for a word.”

Another group, former long-term patients now outside the hospital, undergo a painful process of social reintegration: they venture on a journey to Denmark.

Through the parallel discourse of the two groups, the film tries to listen to the voice of madness beneath its chaotic ravings — to see the dramatic collision of a human being with madness, in the deepest despair and absolute doubt about every aspect of existence.

This is another way of looking at madness and at the human being. At the capacities and sensitivities of those who suffer psychically, and at the unclear boundaries of “normality.”

Full transcript

The complete transcript of the film is available in Greek. Read it on the Greek page →

Photographs

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