The award winning Greek documentary When Tomatoes Met Wagner travels to London for two special screenings at the Bertha Doc House on January 28 and 30th, the UK’s first cinema dedicated solely to documentary films and events.
The first screening of the documentary will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s protagonist Alexandros Gousiaris and the film’s director Marianna Economou. The director will also offer a welcome speech at the screening on the 30th. The audience will have the opportunity to enjoy organic Greek food, in collaboration with UK Greek & Mediterranean Food Suppliers Odysea.
The film tells the humorous and uplifting story of two ingenious Greek cousins and five village women, who tackle the world market with their home grown tomatoes. It premiered at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival (February 2019) and was the Greek official selection for the 92nd Academy Awards for the Best International Feature Film category.
The film is a story about an ordinary rural community, where things start to happen in an extraordinary way. After centuries of introversion, the tomato stirs up life in the village and its thirty three elderly inhabitants must respond. On top of this, Alexandros plays Wagner in the tomato fields to help them grow, uses stories to market the products and convinces people from all over the world to visit Elias. With humour and poetry, When Tomatoes Met Wagner speaks to us about the power of human relationships and the importance of reinventing oneself during difficult times.
Since its premiere at the Berlinale, the documentary has also travelled to Sydney International Film Festival, Thessaloniki IFF, Visions du Reel, the New Zealand Architecture & Design Film Festival, DOK.fest Munchen, CineDOC Tbilisi, DocsBarcelona Spain, DocAviv Festival Israel, Montreal Cinéma sous les Etoiles, Lemesos Int Doc. Festival and Sarajevo IFF.
The film was also been nominated for the prestigious Prix Europa Award, screened across Spain and Mexico and won the Prix Bartok and Prix Monde en Regards at the Jean Rouche Festival in Paris in November 2019.
Marianna Economou studied anthropology, photojournalism and film production in London. Since 2000, she directs and produces documentary series and independent films of Greek production and co-productions with European broadcasters such as the BBC, ARTE and YLE.
She has received awards for The School, My Place in the Dance, Please Listen to Me, Bells, Threads And Miracles, Twelve Neighbours, Food for Love and The Longest Run which was nominated for the European Film Awards 2016. The Longest Run also won the VER.DI award at Dok Leipzig.
