Macramé
Date:
December 15, 2022
Macramé
Macramé
by Alexis Koukias-Pantelis
StudioBauhaus | Greece
Live-action feature | 1st feature
Logline
When her estranged father falls into a coma, a musician reluctantly returns from Hamburg to Athens with her eight-year-old son. There she is forced to confront their broken bond, the family she left behind, and the boundaries of her own motherhood.
Synopsis
Daphne (36) is a musician living in Hamburg with her eight-year-old son, Kimon. She performs as a French hornist with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, while juggling life as a single mother. When she learns that her father, with whom she’s had no contact for years, has fallen into a coma after a serious accident, she reluctantly returns to Athens with her son.
Life in Athens is a far cry from the structured routine of her life in Germany. Daphne finds herself in a familiar yet chaotic environment, full of unresolved emotions: her strained relationship with her father, her old resentment toward her mother, the distance from her half-brother, and her son’s discomfort with the situation. At first, she feels frustrated. As her father’s condition remains unchanged, she starts considering staying in Athens longer to care for him. Gradually, she begins to let go, soften, and grow closer to her family.
In August, the city empties. Her family leaves and Kimon goes on holiday with his father. Daphne is left alone. She runs into an old neighbor by chance and briefly rediscovers a sense of carefree childhood she had long forgotten. She swims, plays the piano, and spends her days at the hospital by her father’s side, who is still in a coma. As she tends to him, she rediscovers his body and lost parts of his past. The farewell comes not with words, but in the only language she knows: music.
Director’s Profile
Alexis Koukias-Pantelis is a film director, screenwriter, and production sound mixer based in Athens, Greece. He holds an MA in Film Directing from Screen Academy Scotland (Edinburgh) and a BA in Music Technology from Kingston University London. He has directed seven short films that have screened and received awards at international festivals including Aesthetica SFF, BUFF Malmö, Tirana IFF, and SCHLiNGEL IFF. His short AEROLIN (2023) was a candidate for the 2024 European Film Awards, and won Best Director, Best Screenplay, and the Independent Award from the Greek Federation of Film Societies at the 46th Drama International Short Film Festival, as well as Best Greek Film at Psarokokalo IFF & Best Performance at Chiaroscuro IFF (Italy). His short AFTER NOON (2021) received Best Actress and Best Actor awards at the Athens IFF, while IRO/HE.RO won Best Film at Gaztefilm Fest (Spain) and Athens Short Film Festival. He has participated in script development programs such as the Scottish Shorts (SFTN), the Mediterranean Film Institute / ERT Microfilm, and the Agora Short Film Lab (Thessaloniki IFF). As a production sound mixer he has worked on more than 50 fiction and documentary films screened at Cannes, Venice, Locarno, and Sundance. He is a member of the Hellenic Film Academy.
Company Profile
StudioBauhaus is an Athens-based audiovisual production company founded in 2014. The company has built a diverse slate across fiction, documentary, and animation, with expertise in international co-productions.
Highlights include Araceli Lemos’s debut HOLY EMY (2021, co-produced with France and USA), which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival (Special Mention, Best First Feature) and went on to international acclaim with two Independent Spirit Award nominations. Mihai Mincan’s TO THE NORTH (2022, Venice Orizzonti Competition) and Orfeas Peretzis’s RIVIERA (2023, Thessaloniki IFF – winner of four awards including the FIPRESCI Prize). StudioBauhaus also acted as line producer for acclaimed animation (LOVING VINCENT, 2017 – Greek unit; Oscar, Golden Globe, and Annecy Audience Award nominee), short-form animation projects (including two Hellenic Film Academy award winning shorts), and documentaries.
Recent credits include Spiros Stathoulopoulos’s THE MEGALOMANIACS (2025, Greek-Cypriot-Colombian co-production), which premiered in Tallin’s PÖFF Rebels With a Cause Competition, Mihai Mincan’s sophomore film MILK TEETH (2025, WP Venice Orizzonti & TIFF’s Centrepiece) and slated for a 2026 release are co-productions of Maria Bäck’s BRAVE NEW LOVE (2026, Denmark-Sweden-Greece), and Leonie Krippendorff’s PEELED SKIN (2026, in co-production with Germany’s Kineo Filmproduktion).