Μνήμη, λήθη και προφορικές μαρτυρίες στο σύγχρονο ελληνικό «ντοκιμαντέρ μνήμης», Ματαρόα: Το ταξίδι συνεχίζεται (2019) του Ανδρέα Σιαδήμα

Abstract

This paper examines the documentary Mataroa – The journey goes on (2019) by Greek filmmaker Andreas Siadimas as an exemplary practice of public history, which sheds light to an unexplored event of recent Greek history: The epic journey of 150 young Greek intellectuals, who embarked upon an ocean-liner ship called Mataroa, in December 1945, from Piraeus to Taranto, with Paris as their final destination. Their journey, organized by Octave Merlier, director of the French Institute of Athens, was an escape from war-striken Greece which offered them an opportunity for intellectual and artistic development, away from national, ideological, political and cultural disputes of their home country. The paper examines how the genre of memory documentary in contemporary Greek cinema, where Siadimas’s film can be categorized, negotiates with memory as a means to understand history. Thus it highlights how the past can be used as a compass for present and future symbolic meanings through film, which can suggest new perspectives for intra-medial and inter-medial readings of a historical event.