Elefsina Notre Amour

Greece | 2023 | 9 min | Experimental Deserted landscapes, ancient ruins and abandoned shipwrecks at sea. Elefsina’s archeological sites don’t come close to being as hauntingly beautiful as these dead ships. They stand majestically like memorial sculptures and bring a magnetism to the eye. In fact, these are the neglected refugees of Elefsina. For how did they end up there, anyway? What's their story? That's the story I want to know. Elefsina Notre Amour is a short sci-fi essay, a timeless archive, filmed on 16mm color Kodak. A film by Mahdi Fleifel Born in Dubai, Mahdi Fleifel is a filmmaker of Palestinian descent who lives and works between Denmark, England and Greece. A graduate of the British National Film & Television School, he studied Fiction Directing under Stephen Frears and Pawel Pawlikowski. In 2010, he founded the London-based production company Nakba FilmWorks. Fleifel's critically acclaimed debut feature, “A World Not Ours”, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and received over 30 awards. He was named Best New Nordic Voice at Nordisk Panorama and received the New Talent Award at CPH:DOX. In 2016, Fleifel won a Silver Bear at the Berlinale for “A Man Returned” which was also nominated for the European Film Awards the same year. His follow up, “A Drowning Man”, was selected in the Official Competition at Cannes and later nominated for a BAFTA. “I Signed The Petition” won Best Documentary Short at IDFA and was nominated for the 2018 European Film Awards. “3 Logical Exits” premiered in the 2020 Tiger Shorts Competition at IFF Rotterdam. His latest feature film, “To A Land Unknown”, premiered in 2024 in Cannes at the Directors’ Fortnight.