SCULPTED SOULS

Julien Grivel (b. 1943), a Swiss dentist, came to Athens for 26 years (1972–1998) to treat, free of charge, the teeth of Hansen's disease (leprosy) patients at “Agia Varvara” Hospital.

In his book “GREECE, My Own Ithaca,” he writes: “In adopting the Greeks' language, I unwittingly adopted their way of thinking too.” From a seaside spot he calls “my safe place,” Julien narrates, in fluent Greek, the great inner journey that helped him see the world and life differently.

His friendship with Manolis Foundoulakis, a former Hansen's disease patient, was decisive. “You know, my friend, through these trials the human soul is beautifully chiselled,” he used to say.

The film, centred on Julien Grivel and Manolis Foundoulakis, follows the chiselling of Julien's soul — how this great inner journey toward his own Ithaca has settled within him.

For twenty-six years, Julien used his holidays to come to Greece to care, quietly, for people with leprosy. He was often accompanied and assisted by his beloved Christiane. He went not to “offer,” but to meet.

Because there, beside people in pain, he felt, as he told me, closer to the truth of life. What he gave them was not only treatment; it was a presence and a gaze unafraid, a touch of acceptance — a man who healed with respect, not with pity.

I did not want to narrate his story; I simply wanted to stand beside him. To see how a person can look at decay… and see beauty within it.

To transform trauma into light. To live within decay without growing bitter, to grow old with serenity, to believe that life has value not because it lasts, but because it is shared.

A man who lived simply, but fully. Who learned that happiness is not found in things, but in relationships. In standing close to others, even when you have nothing to give but your presence.

We can be different, and still stand beside one another. To chisel, through our trials, a little light… a little kindness.

Because, as he himself says, those people remained in the shadows… and yet they remained standing. And that, I think, is the most luminous thing one can say about life.

“In this world that keeps narrowing, we must seek Man wherever he may be found,” says Seferis. That is what our film aspires to do as well.