Citizen Xenos is a feature length documentary exploring the intense life changes of Syrian families, volunteers and locals during the biggest humanitarian crisis of our time. On the Greek island of Lesbos the film follows the stories of estranged refugees and their receivers as they adapt to an unprecedented situation. A grandmother, wanted by the Syrian Regime, travels with her traumatized granddaughter to claim family reunification in Germany. A fleeing Syrian family settles on the island that received them having the first migrant child to enroll in a Greek school. A globe-trotting mercenary working as a security manager in the municipal camp offers a candid tour of the living conditions, bureaucratic process and future perspectives of refugees. A Syrian activist living in Greece for 35 years moves to the island to offer housing and care to refugee families, while dealing with the emotional strain of the role he has undertaken. With the help of a Lebanese performer, a Syrian teenage barber living in a school squat in the center of Athens re-enacts his experiences of captivity by ISIS and the journey away from war.
LUCAS
PALEOCRASSAS
Lucas Paleocrassas is a Greek filmmaker and video artist based in Athens, Greece. He holds a BA in Communications (Film & TV, Journalism) from the American College of Greece and the Open University UK. He is a recipient of Libra Group’s scholarship program that earned him post-graduate work in Los Angeles. Since 2011 he has been making documentaries on relevant social issues. His 2018 feature debut “Citizen Xenos” was nominated for the International Amnesty award in the 20 th Thessaloniki Documentary festival and made its American premiere in the New York City Greek Film Festival. His work has been screened on national television and presented in various educational institutions around the world such as the Sapienza University of Rome and the NYU in New York. In 2019 he participated in the exhibition “Mitli Mitlak” (Like You Like Me) in Detroit, Michigan with a collection of video-portraits of Syrian refugees.
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CONTACT \ lucas_oldwine@live.com