Award-winning Poetry Film · Experimental Cinema · International Awards & Festival Selections
About the film
The film Primordial establishes an inner dialogue between poetry and a timeless landscape. Through cinema, word and music the film reflects nature’ s abandonment, spiritual emptiness and end times through the eyes of a woman, who could be nature, history, an idea or just a human being of our times. The film is based on the poetry book of same name by Nana Papadaki.
Watch the trailer
Film Information
PRIMORDIAL
Poetry Film, Experimental Film, Video Poetry
Greece, 2024, 12min 34 sec
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/904933925
Directing: George Zorbas & Nana Papadaki
Cast: Nana Papadaki
Cinematography: George Zorbas
Music: Vassilis Tzavaras
Editing: Katerina Tzigotzidou
English Translation: Elena Polygeni
Spanish Translation: Kyriaki Chrstoforidi
Production: Maldoror AMKE (non-profit company)
Based on the poetry book Primordial (Melani Publications, 2023) by Nana Papadaki. First draft of the film was shown at the book presentation at Athens Book Space of Municipality of Athens.
Awards & Official Selections
- Winner Βest International Experimental Film 2026, Best Original Director, Best Sound & Best Indie Cinematgrapher – Category: Arthouse Experimental Film, Foreign Press Film Awards 2026, a project distributed worldwide exclusively by Wild Filmmaker
- Official Selection Southern Light Festival, Madrid, Spain 2026
- Honorable Mention Beyond the Screen Festival 2026, Antwerp, Belgium 2026
- Οfficial Selection Tulip International Film Festival, Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland 2026
- Οfficial Selection Black Owl Festival, Bodrum, Mugla, Turkey 2026
- Semi-Finalist Art Giraffe International Film Festival, Nice, France 2025
- Award Winner Best Symbolic Film Palma Film Festival, Palma de Mallorca, Spain 2026
- Ηonorable Mention Best Symbolic Film Dialog Film Festival, Cologne, Germany 2025
- Winner Bangkok Critic’ s Award, Bangkok Movie Awards, Bangkok, Thailand 2025
- Quarter Finalist, Art Giraffe International Film Festival, Nice, France 2025
- Οfficial Selection Sofia International Film Festival, Sofia, Bulgaria 2025
- Official Selection Nature & Culture International Film Festival, Copenhagen-Denmark, Malmo-Sweden, Calgary-Canada 2025
- Official Selection FABA Films For Artists By Artists 2025
- Αward Winner Best Indie Short Film, Cambridge Short Film Festival, Cambridge, United Kingdom 2025
- Αudience Choice Award [Story.Land] International Short Film Fest, Plovdiv, Bulgaria 2025
- Αward Winner Best Experimental Film (Outstanding Achievement) & Best Experimental Film – Director (Special Mention) Ideal International Film Festival, Sillod, Maharashtra, India 2025
- Official Selection Los Angeles Movie and Music video Awards, Los Angeles, California, USA 2025
- Οfficial Selection Βest Inspirational Film, Your Way International Film Festival, Malta 2025
- Οfficial Selection New York Film & Actress Awards, New York, USA 2025
- Οfficial Selection, Hollywood Stage Script Film Competition, Hollywood, USA 2025
- Οfficial Selection, New York Film and Cinemagraphy Awards, New York, USA 2025
- Official Selection Art Giraffe International Film Festival, Nice, France 2025
- Poetry Expo25, Versopolis, The Ecology of Language – Poetry and Environmental Action
- Official Selection Belgrade International Film Festival BIFF, Belgrade Serbia 2025
- Award Winner Poetry International Art Film Festival IAFFEST 2024, Birmingham 2024
- Award Winner Best Experimental Film Special Jury Award Asian Talent International Film Festival 2024, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India 2024
- Οfficial Selection 2nd Spicy Indie International Film Festival SIIFF 2024, Athens 2024
- Official Screening International Performance Poetry Biennial Symposium- Festival PerPoSF 2024, Thessaloniki 2024
- Οfficial Selection Short Shot Fest, Moscow 2025
- Official Selection Festival Fotogenia, Mexico 2024
- Αward Winner 3rd KISFFO 2024, Cinematic Achievement Award, Karditsa 2024
- Official Selection Experimental Brasil 2024, Rio de Janeiro 2024
- Οfficial Screening 10th Tinos International Literary Festival 2024, Tinos 2024
- Official Selection 11th International Video Poetry Festival 2024, Athens 2024
The bοok Primordial was longlisted for Poetry Awards 2023 of Literary Magazine Hartis.
Media / Links
- https://elculture.com/cinema/the-greek-poetic-film-by-nana-papadaki-and-giorgos-zorbas-has-won-its-seventh-consecutive-award-at-an-international-film-festival/
- https://theatromusicbooks.blogspot.com/2025/07/primordial-7o.html
- https://www.monopoli.gr/2025/07/17/promotional-items/cine-news/892279/primordial-vraveio-gia-tin-tainia-ton-giorgou-zormpa-kai-nanas-papadaki-sto-cambridge-short-film-festival/
- https://www.cambridgeshorts.com/winners25/
- https://bestfilmawards.com/official-selection/new-york-film-and-female-actress-award
- https://www.versopolis.com/initiative/poetry-expo-25/content/1625/primordial
- https://94fm.gr/i-nana-papadaki-mas-mila-gia-tin-tainia-primordial/
- https://flix.gr/news/special-screenings-28-november.html
- https://www.monopoli.gr/2024/11/26/promotional-items/cine-news/837662/primordial-i-vraveymeni-poiitiki-tainia-tis-nanas-papadaki-kai-tou-giorgou-zormpa-ston-kinimatografo-mikrokosmos/
- https://athina984.gr/2024/12/02/i-vraveymeni-tainia-primordial-provalletai-sto-plaisio-toy-spicyiiff-2024/
- https://www.cuemagazine.gr/2024/11/29/nana-papadaki-i-poihsh-ston-kinhmatografo/
- https://all4fun.gr/psyxagogia/sinema/tainies/87831-primordial-nana-papadaki-giorgos-zorbas
- https://www.fotogeniafilmfestival.org/en/noticias
- https://www.kisffo.com/primordial/
- https://tinostoday.gr/kathierosi-provolon-poiitikou-kinimatografou-stin-tino/
- https://www.tovima.gr/2024/07/24/books-ideas/logotexnia-stin-tino/
- https://www.experimentalbrasil.com/about-5-16
- https://www.culturenow.gr/nana-papadaki-paroysiasi-poiitikoy-vivlioy-arxegoni-sto-athens-book-space/
Directors
George Zorbas has studied Film Directing and Sound Engineering. He works as video director, assistant theater director, lighting designer, sound engineer and production manager, at several theater performances and films.
Nana Papadaki is an actress, director and poet. She is a graduate of Karolos Koun Greek Art Theater, E. Hatzikou Film School, Athens University of Economics and Business and German School of Athens. As an actress she has collaborated with Karolos Koun Greek Art Theater, National Theater of Greece, National Theater of Northern Greece, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Municipality Theater of Piraeus etc. She has directed four theater plays and published four poetry books.
Their artistic collaboration includes many theater plays presented, among others, in Athens, Elefsis, Skiathos and Brussels. Their latest theater work was subsidized by Greek Ministry of Culture and presented under the auspices of Greek Ministry of Culture and Swedish Institute of Athens.
Artistic Note
The film Primordial expands our artistic collaboration from theater stage to film poetry, experimental film and the art of video poetry. It explores the potential of non-narrative construction and broadens our look into nature and the core of existence.
The Poetry Collection
The bοok Primordial was longlisted for Poetry Awards 2023 of Literary Magazine Hartis.
“The poet searches, interprets, wonders about the creation of silence, existence, time, woman.”
Aggeliki Lalou, allyou
“Like another Prospero, the poet, with the magic of poetry, in her own strange island, prison or mental hospital cell, attempts a Descent, a journey to the Underworld of the Soul.”
Margarita Papageorgiou, fractal
“It affirms the concept of time, through the prism of acquired or approachable knowledge, where its truth is incarnated into consciousness.”
Vassilis Rouvalis, vassilisrouvalis.blogspot
“Primordial leaves you with a shakespearean and ibsenic aftertaste in the soul”
Pavlos Methenitis, athinorama
“Through the darkness of each of us, in that unconscious room of ourselves”
Dionysis Marinos, Bookpress
Nothing is left.
She shivers in the wind.
She feels the wind in her bones.
Σύντομη Παρουσίαση
Η ταινία Primordial δημιουργεί έναν εσωτερικό διάλογο ανάμεσα στην ποίηση και ένα άχρονο τοπίο. Η σύζευξη εικόνας, λόγου και μουσικής αντικατοπτρίζει την εγκατάλειψη της φύσης, το πνευματικό αδιέξοδο και τους έσχατους χρόνους μέσα από τα μάτια μιας γυναίκας, που θα μπορούσε να είναι η φύση, η ιστορία, μια ιδέα ή απλώς ένας άνθρωπος της εποχής μας.
Το φιλμ εξερευνά τη μνήμη, το σώμα και την ανθρώπινη ύπαρξη δημιουργώντας μια υβριδική κινηματογραφική γλώσσα. Από την πρεμιέρα του το 2024, έχει διακριθεί με διεθνή βραβεία και έχει επιλεγεί σε φεστιβάλ στην Ευρώπη, τη Βόρεια και Νότια Αμερική και την Ασία.
Δεν έμεινε τίποτα.
Τρέμει απ’ τον άνεμο.
Νιώθει τον άνεμο στον σκελετό της.
