Cypriot-Australian writer, poet and filmmaker, Koraly Dimitriadis, is a finalist for her short film, Yiayia Mou (My Grandmother) in the 2023 Multicultural Film Festival (MFF).
The MFF event created by the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC), in association with Swinburne University of Technology, will announce the winners on Tuesday, August 29 at the ACMI in Federation Square, Melbourne.
Dimitriadis, who grew up in Melbourne and shows the multicultural complexities of migrants who moved to Australia throughout her art, entered the MFF with her short film, Yiayia Mou (My Grandmother), which tells the story of her Cypriot grandmother.
The film is a poem Yiayia mou published Dimitriadis’s book, Just Give Me The Pills, which captures her grandmother’s story of being forced to marry her grandfather; the story of her mum and aunts who were sent to Australia to be married; and her own story of how she was raised to perceive marriage as success but how it ended in divorce.
Set in the ancient Paphos Theatre that has not seen a performance in over a thousand years, the film highlights the intergenerational trauma of women not having control over their own lives and bodies.
As a finalist in the Best Short Open category, Dimitriadis said the festival has allowed her to explore and experiment with her filmmaking becoming a platform for culturally diverse voices, according to If media.
Reflecting on her childhood, Dimitriadis remembers the stories her dad shared about the politics of her homeland. Her dad would talk about the struggle to make ends meet as migrants in Australia, a country different to what they knew back home.
“It just felt like something wasn’t right,” Dimitriadis said in an interview with If media. “But I didn’t realise what it was or how to articulate it until much later in life.”
As well as being a finalist in the MFF, the short film will screen in November this year in Cyprus as part of the Australian Embassy’s 50-year celebrations.
The Multicultural Film Festival 2023, now in its fifth year, celebrates emerging and established filmmakers who have created short films to explore stories of cultural diversity and living in multicultural Australia.
MFF will celebrate the 2023 Official Selection on Tuesday, August 29 starting from 7:00PM to announce the winners of each category, with a premiere screening of the winning films. Tickets: Eventbrite.
Read more: ‘Yiayia Mou’: Koraly Dimitriadis’ film to focus on intergenerational trauma for Greek women
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