Niki & Aurora meet one night, at an Amusement Park in Athens. Soon they will discover that they come from the same world. They both share a secret. Niki visits the park for the first time. Aurora is there every night, getting “drunk” on the smell of scared humans. Niki is swept away by Aurora. She lets go of her fears and follows Aurora on a crazy night on the Starflyer. She will accept her savage instincts, experience her first love, chase down humans and watch the first sunrise of her new life.
Year of production 2026 Length 18' Countries Greece Shooting FormatArri Alexa Mini Aspect Ratio 1:1,66 Dialogue Greek
Director Maria Hatzakou Production Company Merricat Films Producer Maria Hatzakou Co-Production Companies ERT S.A. The Stripes, This is The Girl FIlms, with the Support of EKKOMED (Hellenic Film & Audiovisual Center) Co-Producers Kostis Katsaros Writer Maria Hatzakou Line Producer Vasso Stergiou Director of Photography Evgenia Bourzoukou Editing Livia Neroutsopoulou Original Music Marilena Orfanou Sound Design Valia Tserou Costume Designer Vassilia Rozana Make Up/SFX Niki Ovakoglou Art Direction Zoi Arvaniti Sound Recordist Daphne Farazi 1st AD Zabela Chaviara Acting Coach Fotini Papachristopoulou Colorist Aggelos Mantzios/ Metapost Post Procuction Services Poster & Credits Design Korina Gallika Cast Aurora Marion, Donna Petropoulou, Iasonas Papamatheou, Myrto Pagalos, Fotini Papchristopoulou, Alexandra Matheou, Marilena Orfanou, Stavros Markoulakis
Director's Statement Starflyer is a film about diversity, about how we perceive and accept it. It is also a film on female empowerment. A horror love story between two women - outcasts that live amongst us. As a female filmmaker, I’m mostly invested in giving voice to diverse female characters. As in my previous film AMYGDALA - a story on the obsessive love between two sisters - I’m interested in interweaving horror elements into everyday stories. Starflyer is a -coming out-love story inside a horror story. Aurora and Niki are two lost vampires. Aurora will show Niki how to be a free creature. Once Niki accepts herself, she will be ready to live freely, fall in love and find her place in this world even if it means she has to feed off other people.The amusement park is a safe space where one can sense the city differently. It is an unrealistic non-space. It is also a location that has appeared in films a lot. It is a universal location but at the same time a very local location. Riding the Starflyer one can experience the city as if flying. The audience never gets to experience Athens visually. The only view of the city we have is when they ride the Starflyer. From up above. And then when they leave the park we follow them into an urban no man’s land where they see the city from above once again during sunrise. The film was shot at the Allou Fun Park in Athens and the amazing Aurora Marion (has collaborated with Chantal Ackerman and Athina Tsangari) and Donna Petropoulou give “life:” to these two amazing creatures. Inspired by films like A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Ana Lily Amirpour), Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow), Trouble Everyday (Claire Denis), Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmush), and Raw (Julia Ducournau), Starflyer aspires to be a “different female vampire film”.
