Summary
Four mythical creatures, four distinct worlds and a story spanning a million years: Stavros Markoulakis directs the new promotional spots for the 67th Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Pegasus, the Mermaid, the Panther and the Phoenix lead four self-contained cinematic chapters linked by the festival’s central theme this year: the desert. The festival takes place from 5 to 15 November 2026.
The first film opens the story with Pegasus.
Four deserts, four creatures
The concept begins with four symbolic deserts — of earth, water, air and fire. Each gives rise to a creature that accompanies the protagonists through different phases of the Sun. Encounters and separations recur over time, as people and memories appear to return in other forms.
The four films share the title “A Story of Heavenly Bodies Floating Around the Sun in Four Phases & a Million Years Apart”. Markoulakis says the idea came from a dream and that he wanted to share four fragments of this story. Memory, searching and waiting provide the emotional thread running through the films.
Watch all four festival spots
Following Pegasus, the story moves to the Mermaid in its second chapter.
The Panther appears in the story’s third phase.
The Phoenix completes the four-part cycle.
Cinema made for a cinema festival
Markoulakis recently presented his short film “Tropic of the Mourning Gecko” in the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section, among the Greek entries at this year’s Venice festival. His new commission for Thessaloniki brings a personal, dreamlike narrative into a different format: four short films that shape the festival’s visual identity.
The 67th festival will also feature 53 Greek films, including 19 premieres. These spots act as a cinematic introduction to the event, relying on images and symbolism rather than a conventional rundown of the programme.
What we think
What works about Markoulakis’s approach is that he treats a promotional spot like a miniature film. Instead of trying to squeeze a festival logo and a set of dates into a few seconds, he creates a world, an atmosphere and an ongoing story that gives viewers a reason to watch the next chapter.
For filmmakers and visual creators, the useful idea here is a shared visual and narrative framework across four different videos. Each piece can stand on its own without losing the identity of the campaign. Translating the desert into earth, water, air and fire also gives the director much more room to experiment than a literal series of shots of sand dunes would.
