Στους δρόμους της ελιάς (Greece, 2003)
Watch movie please click here (coming soon)
Documentary
duration 64 min
English - Greek subtitles
Synopsis
We are a group of 15 people, 14 olive saplings, 6 motorbikes, 1 minibus and 1 lorry converted for accommodation purposes; we travel around the Mediterranean, 10 countries in total, their borders, and 9.000 kilometers in 39 days.
Siamo un gruppo di 15 persone, 14 piante di ulivo, 6 motociclette, 1 minibus e 1 camion convertito per la sistemazione notturna; viaggiamo intorno al Mediterraneo, 10 paesi in totale , i loro confini e 9.000 chilometri in 39 giorni.
Είμαστε 15 άνθρωποι, 14 ρίζες ελιάς, 6 μοτοσυκλέτες, 1 μικρό λεωφορείο, μία διαμορφωμένη νταλίκα για ύπνο για φαγητό, ένας γύρος στη Μεσόγειο, 10 χώρες, σύνορα, 9000 χιλιόμετρα σε 39 ημέρες.
Documentary
duration 64 min
English - Greek subtitles
Synopsis
We are a group of 15 people, 14 olive saplings, 6 motorbikes, 1 minibus and 1 lorry converted for accommodation purposes; we travel around the Mediterranean, 10 countries in total, their borders, and 9.000 kilometers in 39 days.
Siamo un gruppo di 15 persone, 14 piante di ulivo, 6 motociclette, 1 minibus e 1 camion convertito per la sistemazione notturna; viaggiamo intorno al Mediterraneo, 10 paesi in totale , i loro confini e 9.000 chilometri in 39 giorni.
Είμαστε 15 άνθρωποι, 14 ρίζες ελιάς, 6 μοτοσυκλέτες, 1 μικρό λεωφορείο, μία διαμορφωμένη νταλίκα για ύπνο για φαγητό, ένας γύρος στη Μεσόγειο, 10 χώρες, σύνορα, 9000 χιλιόμετρα σε 39 ημέρες.
Olive trees offer a reason for people to meet and send a message of peace.
Gli Ulivi offrono un motivo d’incontro alle persone e mandano un messaggio di pace.
Με αφορμή την ελιά ο άνθρωπος γίνεται τόπος συνάντησης
Content Summary
November - December 2002 (few weeks before the war on Iraq):
We travel around the Mediterranean, 10 countries in total (Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Lybia, Tunisa, France, Italy, Greece) their borders, and 9.000 kilometers in 39 days.
We are tracking and searching for the civilization of the olive tree in the mediaterranean world: a still largely unknown civilization for the western world, that offers us and shapes in us other views than the ones we usually face, those of a middle East burning from war and turmoil...
We are a convoy of peace: men and saplings of olive trees.
With the Messinian Chamber of Commerce, we journey through the land, sea and deserts of the mediterranean Europe, middle East and North Africa.
The symbolic planting - offering of olive saplings along the way, allows for the revelation of different hidden sides of our world to appear, bringing a mosaic of images to traveller and spectator alike. The narration of the film does not comment reality. It records alike moments that are important and trivial, mundane and surreal, moving and harsh, just and unjust, letting them exist and vanish, a world seen through the movement of travelling.
In the end, each one of us keeps in the inner eye the images and sentiments that have ment something for them.
Our usual abstract perceptions of that world materializes gradually through a journey that becomes personal.
Words from the travel-log
Just after the borders. Between Turkey and Syria, in a olive feild:
“they say olive trees originally come from Syria”
Hafez. (The "madman" of Anfe, Lebanon):
"If you think about it, the mother of civilisation is the olive tree.
The oil lamp gave us light in order to read, that way we learnt and evolved.
The corner stone of our education is that small flame that the olive tree gave us.
Olive is the mother of civilisation"
Rolf Roost. (Merchant of olive oil. Member of the Convoy)
"It feels great riding your bike through the desert.
It's like disappearing in the arms of earth".
On the road Beirut - Damascus.
"the olive holly tree for Muslims, Jews, and Christians"
Rutba. Iraq. (22/11/02, two days prior to the UN inspectors arrival in Iraq).
"today we planted the 6th olive for the peace in Iraq in the municipality square"
Libya. Between Tobruk and Tripoli.
"the Mediterranean ends where olive trees stop and palm trees bloom"
Tunis. Tunisia.
"the first mosque was built around an olive tree. Its name "Zeitoune" means olive tree"
In the boat. Between Tunis and Marseille.
"the Mediterranean is the mythical and geographical environment of olives"
Dialogue between me and the Olive Museum Director of Nyons. South France.
"Does Iraq produce olive oil?
- They do have olive trees.
- If they have olive trees they must have oil.
A chaplet made of olive cores.
A rosary made of olive cores.
Chaplets made of olive cores are rare, because they are very cheap.
Do you have any questions?
- No".
Production & Distribution
MeMSéA
Screening
6th Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greece, March 2004)
New York Intenational & Independent Film & Video Festival (USA, April 2004)
Festival du Cinema de Bruxelles, Palmares 2004 (Brussels, Belgium September 2004)
Princeton University screenings (USA, June 2005)
The BIOL prize commission & RECIDIVI la rete del Cinema e dell’Audiovisivo (Bari, Italy, April 2010)