He watches her every day. She never looks back. Until the world ends.
Two people, alone in a desolate city. Costas and Anna in Athens. Costas is an engine driver. The trains he drives travel from one end of the city to the other, following the traces of the ancient rivers that were paved over and made into roads. Anna sells ferry boat tickets at Piraeus, the city’s main harbour, the place where the rivers once flowed into the sea. Costas knows Anna. He sees her every morning, waiting on the platform for his train to take her from Thiseion to Piraeus; and he sees her every afternoon, when his train takes her from Piraeus back to Thiseion. Anna doesn’t know Costas. From the window of the train car she looks out at the same desolate city every day, without knowing who’s driving the train. When something happens to turn Costas’s life upside down, he decides to reach out from inside his solitude and talk to Anna.
Cinematography
Empty Athens as living graveyard—stunning desolation.
Direction
Manda turns routine into ritual, then rupture.
Director
Margarita Manda
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot during Greece's economic crisis; the empty streets aren't set dressing—they're documentary. Athens itself becomes a character in mourning.
Manda based Costas's route on real Athens train lines that follow ancient Ilisos and Kifisos rivers, buried under concrete in the 1960s. The film's geography is literally haunted by hidden water.
GR
