The story of the ship Tanais, which 'tied' the fate of 600 people, Jews, Greek resistance fighters and Italian soldiers, is told in the documentary by Vicky Arvelakis, which was presented on Monday 19.5.2025 to the audience of Chania, in a special screening at the Mikis Theodorakis Theater. The event took place within the framework of the anniversary events for the 84th anniversary of the Battle of Crete, and was organized by the Region of Crete, in collaboration with the Municipality of Chania.
On behalf of KISE, the event was attended by the Secretary General of the Board of Directors, Victor Eliezer.
The story of a young Christian tailor from Nea Chora, who chose to follow his beloved Jewish girl until death, the story of the survivor Flora Ventouri and dozens of other stories made, according to the director, even the choice of material an extremely difficult task: "When you have 600 dead, you certainly can't fit all this drama into 72 minutes," Vicky Arvelaki emphasized.
"These documentaries are not easy films that you will come away from feeling good about. They are things that make you think about what the world was like then and what the world is like now," Ms. Arvelaki noted. See HERE
The deputy governor of Chania, Nikos Kalogeris, for his part, spoke about a documentary that concerns a very tragic page of World War II, an unjust and untimely event, shortly before the end of the war. "Memories still mark entire families. We are here to hope that this will not happen again," he stressed. See HERE
Present at the presentation was Victor Eliezer, Secretary General of the Central Jewish Council of Greece, who emphasized: "The sinking of this ship marks the disappearance of the Jewish community in Crete. Today, there are no Jews living in Crete, the only remnant is the Synagogue of Chania and I thank all the organizations for the efforts they make to preserve this jewel," he noted. See HERE
The Italian Tiziano Calabrese, who wrote the original music for the documentary, referred to his music and how he, as an Italian in Chania, makes an effort to enter the soul of his locals at the time. Watch HERE
* PREMIERE: The documentary "Tanais: In the Embrace of the Abyss" premiered at the 27th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, where it was nominated for the FIPRESCI award
** UPCOMING SCREENINGS: Heraklion: Sunday, May 25, 2025, at 20:00 PM at Astoria Cinema
*** TELEVISION PREMIERE: COSMOTE History on COSMOTE TV, on Sunday, June 8, 2025, at 21:00 PM
SOURCE: With data from zarpanews.gr, 20.5.2025