Greece 1986-1987, a little before the fall of State Socialism and just at the end of the Cold War. Idealist Anthi, a working mother, is taking care of her family as her husband Christos is away on business in the USSR. Greece is changing before Anthi's eyes, the world is changing and with them Christos seems to be changing too, in Thelyia Petrakis’ “Bella”.
Film director Thelyia Petraki graduated from CALARTS (USA) with a BA in Film, and from UCL (UK) with an MA in Visual & Material Culture Dept. of Social Anthropology. She has written and directed "Pray" 2012 (Palm Springs, Uppsala, Austin, etc.) distributed by Premium Films, the medium-length documentary "Me And The Others" 2015 that participated in Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival, co-produced with COSMOTE TV and "Helga Is In Lund" 2017 that premiered at the Clermont Ferrand Film Festival. Her latest short film “Bella” 2020, participated at the Berlinale Short Form Station, premiered at the Visions du Reel where it was awarded a special mention and won the E-Flux Prize at the Oberhausen Film Festival. She is currently developing her first feature film.
Based on the letters of a couple in the eighties, Thelya Petraki creates in “Bella” a truly interesting female protagonist. The viewer cannot help a bitter smile on account of the things that Bella ignores that may shatter the world that she wants to change. Interviewed by Greek News Agenda* Thelyia Petraki talks about the challenges of creating a period piece like “Bella” and tries to explore why we are not done with the eighties.
