HARDSHIPS & BEAUTIES (2013) by Kimon Tsakiris

An alternative farmer's road trip into a country that will never be the same again. An inside look into rural Greece, how the country’s economy imploded and how economic hardship and despair is fraying the country's social fabric.
It's 2012 and Greece is facing its greatest economic disaster since World War 2. Mitsos Tsiganos, a.k.a “Mitsigan”, is a modern day Greek cowboy, an empirical philosopher and the owner of one of the biggest farms in southwestern Greece, named “Hardships & Beauties”. Despite the crisis, Mitsos has managed to keep a positive attitude while exporting his goods abroad. Personal disaster strikes, as he loses his mother and his crop in the same year. Forced to rethink his life philosophy, Mitsos decides to leave his farm and take a trip to meet with old friends and new people in search of new motivation and inspiration.

Following his trip we catch a glimpse of rural Greece today, along with some of its typical characters, ranging from exporting producers to immigrants searching for a better life in the Greek Wild West. In the course of this trip Mitsos will realize that focus on human values and ethics is an indispensable key to overcoming the current crisis.

His road trip will become a symbolical trip into a country whose institutions and values had gone bankrupt long before the actual country itself. Mitsos's H&B journey along this fertile land will strengthen his belief that the crisis can be overcome through hard and productive teamwork.

The film will be screened in Thessaloniki, at the 15th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 15-24/3.

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