“Freedom from Today” – Official Presentation of the Music Video, just before the Space Mission With the tremendous support of Hellas Sat, a grand dream of three young Cypriots, Mario Theodorou, Tugce Beserler, and Achilleas Theodorou, has become a reality. They joined forces and through their music, the language they speak best, they created the song “Freedom from Today,” a message of freedom and peace. With the assistance of Hellas Sat and Mr. Christodoulos Protopapas, it is expected to journey into space. During the press conference held on Monday at the Cyprus Journalists’ Club in Nicosia, the creators of the song had the opportunity to present the music video that accompanies their song and share their experiences in the preparation of the song. The song “Freedom from Today” arrives at a time when our neighborhood is engulfed in the turmoil of yet another war, leaving behind bloody wounds on humanity. The team behind the song, hailing from an island that experienced the war and its hardships, aspires to speak the universal language of peace and freedom through their music to millions of people around the world, with the hope that one day, the day will dawn when war becomes a distant past. In the performance of the song, the musician Mario Theodorou and Tugce Beserler collaborate, while the lyrics were written by Achilleas Theodorou.

With the cooperation of a group of musicians, the recording of the song and its music took place simultaneously as they were being composed. The music video, directed and produced by Mario Theodorou, was filmed in Nicosia, symbolically in a location reminiscent of the Athalassa Hospital, which was bombed during the first day of the Turkish Invasion, resulting in the death of 33 people, including Turkish Cypriots. It took four decades to start their exhumation and the process of identifying their remains to be handed over to their families for burial. Carrying the stigma of being mentally ill, some were never handed over to their loved ones. On the screen, the viewer witnesses a story symbolically connected to the location as well as the song. The script of the music video is inspired by Stelios Christofomou’s film “Orange Shoes,” which includes scenes of those mentally ill people.

The film speaks about the stigma of the mentally ill, the outcasts of the time, who found themselves forgotten and in danger within the four walls of a clinic with the outbreak of the war. They were searched for decades later. In his speech, Christodoulos Protopapas, the CEO of Hellas Sat, which is celebrating 20 years of its presence in space this year, mentioned that one of the slogans in May 2003 when the space journey began was the “Bridging Cultures in Space.” “With this motto, we declared our intention to operate as a different satellite organization, one with a meaningful and catalytic intervention and presence in the societies of the countries covered by our satellites, and not just a satellite service provider,” he noted. The primary goal of Hellas Sat, he stated, is the use of space and satellites for the promotion of peace and cross-border sustainable development, through cooperation and building trust among people.

Mr. Protopapas mentioned Hellas Sat’s sponsorship of Mario Theodorou’s proposal to send a song into space, considering that the song carried a message of peace and change, in collaboration with a young Turkish Cypriot artist. “Immediately, Mario found Tugce Beserler, found Achilleas and the other musicians, and the result is what you will see today. We could not have imagined then that this song of peace and reconciliation would be as relevant as ever in our troubled neighborhood today,” he said. On behalf of Hellas Sat, Mr. Protopapas committed to having the music video of the song, along with a photo of those present at the first public presentation of the song, in electronic format on the next satellite, HELLAS SAT 5, which is scheduled to be launched within the next three years, so it will forever exist in space. In conclusion, he mentioned that Hellas Sat has already reached out to NASA and the Chinese Space Agency to send the song as a message of peace to the astronauts at the International Space Station and the Chinese Space Station, respectively. Mario Theodorou, in his message, talks about the transcendence required to achieve freedom and peace.

He specifically notes that love is an essential ingredient of peace and freedom, and love, by itself, is transcendence. However, it is not impossible. A song in space transcends on its own. Even more so, in our times when we are called upon to choose sides amid wars, “Freedom from Today” transcends all sides and stands for human rights. In his message, the 17-year-old lyricist of the song, Achilleas Theodorou, emphasized the need to defend human rights for all people on our planet, especially the right to freedom and peaceful life. As the new generation, he noted, we have the responsibility to create a peaceful and free future to live in, starting from today. In her statement, Tugce Beserler talked about the moment she first heard Mario’s idea. She thought it was an unattainable dream, let alone a song by two unknown artists, until a few months ago, to go into space as a song – a message of peace. “Music is a universal language that transcends all borders and unites people, and with the use of this language, we hope to inspire unity and collaboration. Although this journey to space is symbolic, the message we want to convey is much greater, and today, in our neighborhood, we need it more than ever. With this song, we want to show that together we can achieve a lot, even surpass the stars,” she stated. In conclusion, Tugce expressed her hope that the song “Freedom from Today” becomes a source of inspiration and serves as a reminder that people can peacefully coexist in a common future.