‘We are all we have’

In an island-first, a Greek-language Cyprus feature film will premiere later this month at the Sundance Film Festival in the US – one of the leading film festivals on the globe. Drama Hold Onto Me, revolves around the story of a young girl and her estranged father. The two find themselves in a fragile process of reconnection, slowly learning to release the past while opening themselves to the possibility of a shared future.

Directed by Cypriot filmmaker Myrsini Aristidou, this premiere signals that “our stories have the power to resonate globally,” she told the Cyprus Mail. While in the past, there have been other partly Cypriot entries, Hold Onto Me will be the first Cypriot feature film to be selected for Sundance’s official competition, in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition category.

The film tackles redemption, acceptance and reconnection. And in keeping with her previous work, which received high praise – the Semele and Aria shorts – Hold Onto Me observes the same emotional landscape, a “study” of human distance and the clumsiness of reaching out to one another.

“I see my work as a series of layers; where the shorts are initial sketches, this feature film is the full canvas but carries the same DNA,” Aristidou explained. During the film’s debut on January 26, the director hopes that the festival will validate the independent spirit the island has maintained, with filmmaking often seen as a labour of love and immense perseverance.

To Aristidou, the film is the collective ripening of observations she has made over the years. After having handled the production of a feature-length narrative, she said was happy to have spent years crafting the characters. “It takes a lot to sit through their slow, difficult transitions without rushing to a resolution”.

Although a universal story and rather timeless in its essence, Hold Onto Me is aimed at those who are drawn to emotionally-driven storytelling and character-centered drama. “It will particularly resonate with viewers who have experienced the shift from childhood idealisation to a more complex understanding of their parents,” said Aristidou, emphasising that those who recognise how early family relationships influence attachment and personal identity, will gain a whole new appreciation for the movie.

With all filming having been completed on the island, the film is without a doubt tethered to the country and its people both through geography and through its psychological climate. The main character, 11-year-old Iris, represents Cyprus: small, often overlooked and looking for her place in the world. Similarly to the plot, the main character carries the weight of a complex and unresolved history.

At the same time, the state of permanent transition is characteristic of the island and central to the movie, with Cyprus often considered “caught between traditional heritage and the globalised identity of youth.” Within the film’s context, this manifests through textures: the harsh midday sun, the stillness of a summer afternoon, and the way we use silence as a protective layer.

“It captures a society that is trying to heal from old wounds while simultaneously facing the anxieties of the present,” Aristidou said.

But while the premiere’s excitement is building up, so is the vulnerability of exposure to international audiences. “It feels like a strange and beautiful dichotomy,” she added. The excitement comes from the sense of borderlessness and the idea that a story born in a small Cypriot neighbourhood will live in the mountains of Park City. Vulnerability is an important part of the experience, she said, because through exposure, the movie will tackle deeply personal questions about family, identity and belonging to a global audience.

The director hopes the efforts of those behind the film will be felt widely. “Every member of the cast and crew approached it with care, generosity, and a deep sense of commitment and trust in the story and in one another”.

The film, an international co-production between Cyprus, Denmark, Greece and the United States, with the support of the island’s deputy ministry of culture, is in its heart a search for home, not just as a physical place, but a sense of belonging to one another. “We are all we have, after all,” concluded the director.

How the film will be distributed in Cyprus is still under negotiation