Director Dimos Avdeliodis, creator of unique movies about life in the mastic villages of Chios, amongst which “The tree we used to hurt” is a sensitive and modest artist. He believes that the beauty of his homeland is not only hidden in images and photographs, but in the relationship between people and nature as well.

As if I was giving away my secrets

“I found myself weak when I directed “The tree we used to hurt”, it was like giving away my secrets. Everything I had to say about the mastic trees lies in this movie, everything is whirling around in there. Since we were 5 years old, our families used to take us to the fields and taught us everything about the trees. At the age of 10-11 we had been initiated, we used to “puncture” the trees on our own and we were ready to take over the business".

Dimos Avdeliodis describes the atmosphere under the mastic trees as picturesque, as they are so low and densely planted. "The mastic's cultivation and production follows a different procession, I have been in other fields too, like apple or olive fields, but it’s not the same with what's happening here. We bend down in order to walk under the trees, we surround them, we examine them and we see the mastic glowing on the ‘wounded’ trunks or on the ground. As we gather to prepare the trees and clean the space below them in the beginning of the summer, when we find some dribbled mastic, we grab some of it with our hands and we even taste it. Meanwhile, our noses are tantalized by the smell of herbs growing nearby. It’s a constant participation of all our senses in a picturesque atmosphere”.

There is no perfect movie

When asked if he is satisfied by the result of his projects, Dimos Avdeliodis confesses: “In directing we always have failures due to financial or moral reasons. You can’t expend the whole universe and spend fortunes just to film a scene, no matter how important you consider it is. Even the management of time needs morality. You understand that you will never reach perfection and make your sacrifices. Anyway, making a movie is like fighting in a war. You need planning and strategy”.

He views modern Hollywood-type movies that are everywhere around us rather poorly: “It’s all about showing flamethrowers and fire. If there were an international prosecutor, he shold have interfered in order to protect the spectators and especially children from watching them”.

Dimos Avdeliodis consciously stayed away from directing blockbusters and that's why he can't make a living just by his movies. After every movie he is almost economically damaged, but on the other hand he's a winner, because art sets him free and allows him to set his own rules.
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

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