It is a morning in September. A storm is about to break. A mother drives a girl to school in the morning and picks up a woman at the end of the school day. Anna, a fifteen-year-old girl sneaks out of school, and with the help of her boyfriend, they visit a hospital. There, she has to face an event that will jolt her into adulthood.
Year of production 2022 Length 14min Country Greece Shooting Format 16mm Aspect Ratio 1.66:1 Dialogue Greek Director Sofia Georgovassili Producer Stelios Cotionis, Sofia Georgovassili Production Foss Productions Co-Production Onassis Culture Associate ProducerAntigoni Rota Writer Sofia Georgovassili Cinematographer Tudor Panduru Editor Giorgos Zafeiris Sound DesignerPersefoni Miliou Music Jay Glass Dubs Costumes Vassilia Rozana Color Grading Andu Radu VFX Tina Koubaraki Cast Daphne Peel, Maria Kallimani, Konstantinos Sideris, Stefania Sotiropoulou, Nikos Hatzopoulos, Elena Mengreli With the support of Greek Film Centre & Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Greece
Festival selections Berlinale Generation, Berlin International Film Festival 2022, Germany - World Premiere Tampere Film Festival 2022, Finland Filmfest Dresden - International Short Film Festival 2022, Germany Aspen Shortsfest 2022, USA Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS 2022, Latvia - Best Short Film Award Landshut Short Film Festival 2022, Germany International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2022, Germany Los Angeles Greek Film Festival 2022, USA - Honorable Mention Vienna Shorts 2022, Austria International Film Festival Kino Otok - Isola Cinema 2022, Slovenia Friss Hús Budapest International Short Film Festival 2022, Hungary Tenerife Shorts 2022, Spain Leiden Shorts 2022, Netherlands Figari Film Fest 2022, Italy Mediterranean Film Festival Split 2022, Croatia Curtas Vila do Conde - International Film Festival 2022, Portugal Guanajuato International Film Festival 2022, Mexico DokuFest, International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2022, Kosovo - Nomination for The European Film Academy Awards 2022 ANONIMUL - International Independent Film Festival 2022, Romania HollyShorts Film Festival 2022, USA Hong Kong International Film Festival 2022 Seoul International Alt Cinema & Media Festival 2022, South Korea Vicoli Corti 2022, Italy - Best Short Film Award International Cinematographers’ Film Festival “MANAKI BROTHERS” 2022, Republic of Macedonia Castrovillari Film Festival 2022, Italy - Best Screenwriter Award Drama International Short Film Festival 2022, Greece DC Shorts International Film Festival 2022, USA Festival Internacional de Cinema de Bueu 2022, Spain Helsinki International Film Festival - Love & Anarchy 2022, Finland Orvieto Cinema Fest 2022, Italy Tirana Film Festival 2022, Albania - Best Balkan Short Film Award Athens International Film Festival 2022, Greece Jeonju International Short Film Festival 2022, South Korea - Best Live Action Award, Grand Prix Award Curtocircuíto - International Film Festival 2022, Spain Linz International Short Film Festival 2022, Austria Bolton International Film Festival 2022, UK Monstrale Festival 2022, Germany SCHLINGEL Internationales Filmfestival 2022, Germany Kaohsiung Film Festival 2022, Taiwan - Golden Fireball Award (Best International Short Film) Linea d’Ombra Festival 2022, Italy SESIFF - Seoul Yeongdeungpo International Extreme-Short Image & Film Festival 2022, South Korea Kinotrip International Film Festival 2022, Slovenia Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival 2022, North Macedonia Sulmona International Film Festival2022, Italy - Best Actress Award (Daphne Peel), Special Mention for Best Director Film Front - International Short Film 2022, Serbia Braunschweig International Film Festival 2022, Germany Fenêtres Sur Courts 2022, France European Film Forum Scanorama 2022, Lithuania Houston Greek Film Festival 2022, USA Festival International du Film d'Amiens 2022, France Athens International Children's Film Festival 2022, Greece Olhares do Mediterrâneo - Women's Film Festival 2022, Portugal Lublin Film Festival 2022, Poland Cinessonne 2022, France Leuven International Short Film Festival 2022, Belgium Festival Internazionale Cinema e Donne - Firenze 2022, Italy - Special Award Passaggi d’Autore: intrecci Mediterranei 2022, Italy Films Femmes Méditerranée 2022, France Festival International Du Film D'éducation 2022, France Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People 2022, Greece Website Foss Productions Facebook Director's Statement I started writing Memoir of a Veering Storm, after a friend of mine told me of a similar experience at the tender age of fifteen, when his girlfriend got pregnant by accident. With the help of an adult friend, the two kids visited a hospital in order for the girl to have an abortion. All this happened on a normal weekday between her mother escorting her to and from school as usual. I was deeply moved by this real-life event and by the cinematic possibilities of this circular story. I also had had such an experience of a termination at a young age. In the film, my friend’s story is amalgamated with my own subjective experience. The space of these eight school hours becomes the greatest void of all: a gap of understanding and communication pervades both the family and the social environment. In the last couple of years we are all witness to the struggle of women in countries like Poland, Argentina, Hungary and lately Greece, to protect their inalienable right to self-determination through their reproductive rights, expressed by the motto ‘my body, my choice’. Something that shows us that both bodily autonomy and freedom of choice are still in question even today when we take such things for granted. Be that as it may, I chose not to dwell on the social impact a story like that has. I wanted the Memoir of a Veering Storm to observe and depict the effect of such an event on the psyche of a particular young girl who decides to face an abortion, with the company of her same age boyfriend, on the day that a Mediterranean cyclone is closing in on the town. The story, unfolding within the timeframe of a day, follows this girl and shares her journey and her feelings. It portrays, in a stark but understated way, a coming-of-age story. A journey that many women amongst us have lived through.
