Greek Director’s Award-Winning Film ‘Medium’ Makes US Premiere

The award-winning film ‘Medium’ by Greek director Christina Ioakeimidi made its US Premiere earlier in the week at the 39th Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Medium is an Ekso Production and made its World Premiere at the 2023 Sarajevo Film Festival where it earned the Cineuropa Award.

“A simple but extraordinarily moving film about the challenges of growing into your identity at a crucial point in your life, Medium is a curious drama that ventures deep into the heart of this young woman and her existential journey,” the International Cinephile Society described the movie.

The film, based on a novel by Giorgos Sibardis, follows a 16-year-old girl, Eleftheria, played by Aggeliki Beveratou, who is visiting her pregnant sister, played by Katerina Zisoudi, in Athens. She meets a boy called Angelos with whom she roams the streets of the scorching hot August city on his bike. Nikolakis Zeginoglou co-stars.

Medium is a character film

Speaking to Screen Daily recently Ioakeimidi said that when she read the Sibardis novel, she recognized themes that keep appearing in her work, like intense family relations, difficulty in expressing emotion, unexpressed trauma, and sudden loss.

“There was also the atmosphere of hot Athens summer that was so strong in the novel, as I was reading it, images would leap out of the pages. The novel is written in a very cinematic way. But it was the main character that I fell in love with, a seemingly naive and lost young woman that proves to have an inner strength and beauty that I found unique,” she said.

“Medium is a character film. It relies little on dialogue and plot, and more on observation and the importance of small moments that can prove to unexpectedly affect our lives,” the Greek director added.

At its heart, Ioakeimidi told Variety, it’s also a film about the transformative power of first love.

“There is a special beauty in allowing ourselves to become vulnerable to the other person even though it can prove to be painful. As we grow older and ‘wiser,’ it gets more and more difficult to put ourselves through that without any protection,” she added. “Only first-time love has this fascinating quality. From then on, we know better.”

Born in Athens, Greece, Christina Ioakeimidi studied filmmaking at the London Film School, where she honed her skills in writing, directing and photography through the creation of short films.

Ioakeimidi’s directorial debut “Harisma”, which she wrote, directed, and produced, premiered in Greece in 2010 and gained global recognition having been featured in numerous international film festivals.

In addition to her work in feature films, Ioakeimidi has directed documentaries for Greek television networks.