The Homecoming
A fatal love triangle.
Ilias, already sixty years old, returns to his almost deserted village in Greece after thirty years of hard labor in the factories of Germany. He purchases a gas-station and a restaurant located on the main highway towards Ioannina and wishes to make a new start. He feels a stranger once more, only this time in his own country.
Eleni, his wife, is twenty years younger, and still pretty. Even though she never fell in love with him, they married when she was very young, hoping that he will put her out of the poverty and the misery of the village.The perspective of being condemned to spend the rest of her life in this deserted village fills her with desperation. She simply wants to live her life, while there’s still time.
Petros is an Albanian illegal immigrant who arrives in Greece seeking for a better future. Ilias saves him from the authorities and hires him to work at his restaurant. An unusual father and son relationship emerges between them, whereas, at the same time, Eleni and Petros fall desperately in love until the tragic finale.

Vassilis Douvlis
2007, Super 16mm, color, Dolby Digital
INTERNATIONAL AWARDS & RECOGNITION
- 48th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 2007:
- FIPRESCI Award (Greek Film 2007)
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Variety Critics Choice), Czech Republic, screening, 2008
- Montreal World Film Festival, Canada, screening, 2008
- Shangai International Film Festival, China, screening, 2008
- Chicago International Film Festival, USA, screening, 2008
- Cairo International Film Festival, Egypt, screening, 2008
- Mannheim Film Festival, Germany, screening, 2008
- Haifa International Film Festival, Israel, screening, 2008
- Ghent International Film Festival, Belgium, screening, 2008
- Cyprus Film Days, screening, 2008
- New York City Greek Film Festival, USA, screening, 2008
- Tiburon International Film Festival, USA, screening, 2009
- San Francisco Greek Film Festival, USA, screening, 2009
- International Forum of New Cinema, India, screening, 2009
- Montreal Greek Film Festival, screening, 2009
- London Greek Film Festival, competition, 2009
- Windows on Europe Film Festival, screening, 2010
- European Union Film Festival, Beirut, 2011, screening
- Hellenic Foundation, Paris, 2012, screening
CREDITS
Directed by
Vassilis Douvlis
Screenplay
Vassilis Douvlis
Cinematography
Costis Gikas
Sets
Ioulia Stavridou
Sound Recording
Spiros Drosos
Editing
Ioanna Spiliopoulou
Casting
Sotiria Marini
Cast
Maria Skoula, Arto Apartian, Arturo Luzi
Financial Supervisor
Marina Stylianou
Executive Producer
Yorgos Kyriakos
Producer
Costas Lambropoulos
Shooting locations
Greece
Theater Release
April 3, 2008