Light of Cappadocia: Saints Arsenios & Paisios (2025)
Directed by Irini Sarioglou
Duration: 70 mins
Strangers in their own birthplace, 16-year-old Danny and 18-year-old Odysseus cross the entire country in search of their Greek father, after their Albanian mother passes away. Determined to force him to acknowledge paternity, little do they know that the road to the much-coveted Greek citizenship is paved with ghosts from the past, adult savagery and a dream that needs to come true, no matter what. Reaching the end of this initiatory journey they eventually come of age even if Greece refuses to follow.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Irini Sarioglou was born in 1972 in Istanbul. A graduate of the Zappeion High School for Girls, she initially studied French Language and Literature at Marmara University and the University of Grenoble. She completed her postgraduate studies with scholarships from the Onassis Foundation and the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) at the University of Birmingham (UK), in the Department of Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies.
In 2004, part of her doctoral dissertation was published in English by the Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA), titled “The Influence of Turkish Policy towards Greek Education in Istanbul (1923–1974)”, and in 2011, the same work was published in Greek by the Hellenic History Foundation (IDISME).
She has authored scholarly studies and articles and has served as the historical editor of several documentaries, many of which have received awards both in Greece and abroad. She has taught Ottoman and Turkish history at the University of Athens and at the National School of Public Administration. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Istanbul.
Since 2008, she has been the co-founder and General Secretary of the Hellenic History Foundation (IDISME). Since 2016, she has also served as the President of Beyond Borders | Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival.
Awards & Screenings
- LAGFF-doc Premiere
Friday, January 29, 2026
8:15 p.m. St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral