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STRAY BODIES
by Elina Psykou
SYNOPSIS
Robin is pregnant but doesn't want to be a mother. Katerina and Gaia are single but want a child. Kiki suffers from an incurable disease and wants her life to end with dignity. The procedure they hope to get access to – abortion, IVF and euthanasia – is available and legal in neighbouring countries but not theirs. Therefore, they resort to so-called “medical tourism”. By meeting with those who defend the rights to bodily autonomy and many of their opponents, Stray Bodies takes you on a road trip through Europe, where life and death lurk around every corner.
DETAILS
109 mins
2024
Greece, Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria
Maltese, English, Greek, German, French, Italian
CLIP
CREDITS
Director: Elina Psykou
Producers: Antigoni Rota (Jungle Films), Ivan Madeo (Contrast), Marco Visalberghi (DocLab), Veselka Kiryakova (Red Carpet)
Associate producer: Leonidas Liambeys
Co-producers: Rea Apostolides & Yuri Averof (Anemon), Alexis Anastasiadis (Frenel)
BIOGRAPHY
DIRECTOR - ELINA PSYKOU
Born in Greece in 1977, Elina studied filmmaking and sociology in Athens. Her first feature as a screenwriter-director, The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas, premiered at the Berlinale Forum in 2013 and participated in more than 40 international film festivals. During that same year, trade publication Variety singled her out as one of the “10 European Directors to Watch” and in 2014, she won the first-time director award from the Hellenic Film Academy. Her second feature, Son of Sofia, premiered in competition at the Tribeca FF in 2017 and won the Best International Narrative Feature Award. Son of Sofia also won 5 awards from the Hellenic Film Academy, including the best feature film, best director and best screenplay. Both her films were part of European Film Awards’ selection list in 2013 and 2017 accordingly. Currently, she is at the financing of her third feature, Patrimonial Fears and other Illusions (Berlinale co-production market, CineLink co-production market, Sarajevo FF), and at the development of her first drama-series, The Coroner’s Assistant (Berlinale Co-Pro Series 2024). Stray Bodies is her first documentary.
SELECT FESTIVALS
CPH:DOX 2024〡THESSALONIKI 2024 - SPECIAL MENTIONS INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION & AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AWARD〡HOTDOCS 2024〡BIOGRAFILM 2024 - MANIFESTO AWARD〡ZAGREBDOX 2024〡DOKUFEST 2024
PRESS
"A profoundly observant survey of bodily autonomy and biopolitical control in today’s Europe"
"Brilliantly captures the multiplicity of the human body when made political"
— Modern Times Review
"A robust documentary that does not shy away from complexity"
— Screen Daily
"Stray Bodies offers us stories and characters who move us."
"This is a compelling documentary, which makes us care more than ever about the rights of women to control their bodies globally"
— POV Magazine
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