Two years after receiving the Honorary Golden Alexander Award for his body of work, renowned Greek documentarian Stavros Psillakis returns to the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival with “Sculpted Souls.” The film looks at the history of the Hansenites — individuals affected by Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy — through the story of Swiss dentist Julien Grivel, who treated patients affected by the disease pro bono for almost three decades.
Speaking with Variety ahead of the film’s world premiere, Psillakis recalls first reading Grivel’s book, “Greece, My Ithaca,” and promptly wanting to meet up with the dentist. “He immediately won me over,” says the director, who then quickly began production despite not having funding locked yet. Shooting took place in Crete for two weeks in September of 2023, with the following year dedicated to weaving together the new footage and archival material capturing the lives of the Hansenites in Greece in the 70s and 80s.
“I wasn’t interested in making another film about leprosy and its history in Greece,” continues the director of his early motivations. “I wanted to search for Julien the man. Who is this man who braved so many risks at 29 years old in coming to Greece to treat Hansen’s disease? What was he looking for? What was that inner journey?”
“This is done with the concern and desire to make cinema first and foremost, which is what interests me. It’s not the themes that make films great, but the way we approach them. I want people to watch our film as a fiction film with real characters,” he concludes.
This curiosity is common within the director’s body of work, which includes more than 40 films. “I don’t make films about subjects but about people who appeal to me and are available for a journey with them into the geography of their soul. I can’t say how I choose a person. Can you say why you choose and fall in love with a person? This film happened because I met Julien. Ten years ago it would have been a completely different film.”
With a career spanning four decades, what still motivates the filmmaker? “I don’t know how to do anything else,” he says earnestly. “I enjoy this, it keeps me creatively alert. I live in my world and often feel the poetry of things overwhelming me. I work and daydream all the time. A director once said that he is always working so that, when death comes, he won’t notice. I also close the cracks around me so that death doesn’t come through.”
Psillakis also still gets excited about the formal and tonal challenges of filmmaking. The director recalls how he came up with the idea of interpersing the film with sequences of Julien walking on his favorite beach, which happens to be in the region where Psillakis grew up in. “We went there and the weather was so nice, the sea was calm, everything went exactly as we wanted,” he remembers. “We came up with the idea of coming back to this beach as his safe place, a choice that was crucial for the final structure and something we only found in the editing.”
Of premiering “Sculpted Souls” in Thessaloniki, Psillakis says he is “very happy” to be back at his “favorite festival.” The screening will also mark the first time the entire cast and crew will watch the film on the big screen, an experience that still makes the seasoned filmmaker particularly nervous. “I hope the film will be worthy of the recognition I have received [at the festival] and the anticipation and love of the viewers and friends who are eagerly awaiting to see it.”
“Sculpted Souls” is produced by the Cretan Cultural Organization and co-produced by Cosmote TV and Ohmydog Productions. OhMyDog Productions handles world sales.
