Swan Hall hosted a film series with a screening of Kisses to the Children last Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The screening was followed by a discussion with the film’s director and writer, Vassilis Loules.
The documentary explores the lives of five Greek-Jewish children: Rosina, Iossif, Eftyhia, Shelly and Marios. They were all hidden by Christian families in Greece while they were children during World War II. They were separated from their families to survive the war aside complete strangers, but they learned to love them anyway.
Now that they were grown, Loules gave them the opportunity to share their stories on screen and to the public. Loules said the project began with a trip to the Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens, and afterward, he began looking for people and talking to them.
“From the very first moment, I wanted to not to make just another holocaust film, but I wanted to make it about the childhood of the hidden children,” Loules said.
According to Loules, the project lasted seven years. The characters had survived and gone on to live their lives in silence up until this moment. Loules believed their childhood was the most important topic for the film because a lot of children grew up with fake names.
“The focus is on the characters, and not just their story,” Loules said. “The final result is not only their own truth, and it’s not the director’s truth. It is the chemistry between the characters and the director. Everything you see in this film is the chemistry between me and the characters.”
According to Loules, the people who shared their stories in the film are still alive. After the first year of working on the project, Loules said they would constantly call him to ask if the film was ever going to air on screen, but they stopped calling him after three years into the project. Loules invited them to the first screening in 2012, and they were surprised the film was made. Loules said they had never seen the film, and they were watching themselves on screen for the first time.
“They loved the response of the audience, and it made them feel something that was worthwhile,” Loules said.
So far, Loules said that Greece has had a very good and positive reaction to it. Loules mentioned that many schools have broadcasted the screenings many times. In fact, the documentary has been shown around the world in places such as Berlin and Germany. Kisses to the Children has won eight awards at Greek and International Film Festivals.
Only three of the characters met up with the children and/or grandchildren of their saviors. One of the characters even returned to the apartment she had lived in for years. She received the opportunity to sit down and relive the memories she experienced and shared throughout her time as a child.
Although the characters from the documentary never reunited with their actual saviors, they will always have the memory of the people who allowed them to continue on with their lives despite the cruelty they were forced to endure.