By Daniel Bickermann. Cyprus is a land of confusion. The third biggest Mediterranean island geographically belongs to Asia, but politically is part of Europe. And the island's partition into a Turkish and a Greek section has in the meantime grown so complex, that nobody seems able to untie the knot: A Greek nationalistic coup complete with ethnic cleansing of the Turkish minority effected in turn a partial Turkish invasions of the island, which since then holds the country in a stable stalemate. Even the European Unions is avoiding the topic: The whole country was granted membership, but the north part de facto never accepted. What complicates matters is that there are two national languages (Turkish and Greek), with English still being widely spread as lingua franca on the island. In short: the country and its about one million inhabitants just aren't coming to rest. And these are no good conditions for a flourishing film industry.

Short tradition in cinema

Also, Cyprus is not a traditional film nation. The first film produced by Cypriot companies is dated 1962, since then there is only one new feature film production in every three or four years. Cultural subsidies are granted rather to archaeological museums, the stage or other touristically valuable art projects. State subsidies for film don't exist in Cyprus, at least not in form of tax incentives as most European states do it nowadays. Like many small countries the island instead tries to profit from the film industry in form of co-productions and by selling their beautiful landscapes as backdrops for foreign big-budget projects: Those location shoots don't generate much revenue, but at least some foreign money and more tourists come in. In this respect Cyprus can refer to Otto Preminger's EXODUS starring Paul Newman, which was shot mostly in the Cypriot city of Famagusta.

A Cypriot at the Oscars

Its own film industry – as can be expected from a country of this size – has in these last decades been specializing on documentary features which usually are produced by and shown on the local TV networks. Cypriot filmmakers from both parts of the country, like Michael Papas, Derviş Zaim oder Aliki Danezi-Knutsen have gone abroad early on to finance their films. The first among them still is Limassol-born Michael Cacoyannis, who after a turbulent stage and radio career first made his mark with theatre adaptations like ELEKTRA, IPHIGENIE (starring Katherine Hepburn, and Vanessa Redgrave) or THE CHERRY ORCHARD (starring Charlotte Rampling), which won him prizes at Cannes. He then went on to direct the documentary ATTILA 74 about the Turkish invasion, before going to the Oscars for his legendary film ZORBA THE GREEK.

Greek film copies, Cypriot festivals

For decades now there hasn't been a national distributor, leaving the Cypriot filmmakers no chance to market their films at home – in the cinemas you can only see film copies from the Greek mainland that are re-run on the island. And even Cyprus' own chroniclers lament their countrymen's lack of cinematic enthusiasm. But for a few years now, thanks to the creation of small film clubs and the digital revolution, in Cyprus, too, the spirit of a new generation of film-makers has awakened. Two film festivals, both situated in Nikosia and both younger than ten years in tradition, have formed: The Cyprus Film Days and the International Cyprus Film Festival. There are also a biennial short and documentary film festival as well as a children’s film fest just being established. So there's some movement to be observed.

Their own film studio

In 2008 there were even contracts signed to build their own film studio on the island. Until then the Mediterranean Film Studio in the neighbouring Malta was the closest spot for production companies who besides location shoots in the Cypriot mountains, beaches or cities also wanted to shoot on a soundstage. But before the sunny Mediterranean island can fulfil itself its wishes of big cinema, the Cypriot nation, which is economically closely linked with Greece, has to get out of this financial crisis in one piece first.

Links

• International Cyprus Film Festival
• Cyprus International Short Film Festival

• STYX (CY 2008. Alexia Roider)