World premiere at the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in the Open Horizons section.

How does the future of Athens look through the eyes of those who inhabit the layers of its architecture—tenants, young people, immigrants, or birds? “The Public Private House: 9 Stanzas for Athens“, a documentary directed by Tassos Langis and produced by Onassis Culture, is loosely inspired by two books, themed around the Athenian apartment blocks (polykatoikías): “37 Stories from the Athenian Apartment Blocks” and “The Public Private House”, from which it also borrows its title.

The Public Private House is a nine-part essay on Athens, habitation, and the search for perspective—both literally and figuratively. The film focuses on four young women who share a penthouse apartment in Acharnon, a neighborhood marked by intense ethnic and social stratification. The director’s gaze focuses on a participatory, “insider” recording, without hierarchies or imposed interpretations. The academics who appear do not have titles or roles, but alternate equally with the four women, their friends, and the species of birds that inhabit Athens. All have the same substance, the same narrative space. The film chooses to view the city not from above but through what it calls domestic happiness: through the lives that struggle to hold on, that leave for a “better” life, that try to belong. At the center is the apartment building, not just as a structure, but as an archive of lives, uses, dreams, transformations, and separations.

The premiere will take place on Monday, March 9, at 6 p.m., at Warehouse 1 – John Cassavetes Hall, in the presence of the cast and crew. A Q&A session will follow.